Crash into Me
by PetersSugarTits
Summary: There are some things that you just know...whether you're a smoking hot magic 8 ball, or just mated to one. ***This story is M for a reason. There will be foul language and gratuitous sex because we're those kind of people. Probably gonna be some violence too. You don't mess with a Whitlock.***
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This first chapter is a tad short, but when you read it, I think you'll understand why. I hope you enjoy it, as long as you're over 18. If you're under 18 then my stories probably aren't something you should be reading. **

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The only thing that I knew was that I was dead. I knew that I should have listened to my Momma and Daddy and the preacher better. They were right; hell was no place to joke about.

Hell hurt.

Hell burned.

Knowing that I was dead and accepting it were two completely different things. Like I said, I already knew I was dead as a door nail, but I couldn't understand why or how it had happened. Death was turning out to be a very confusing thing.

"What the fuck Peter? How in the ever lovin'…I swear you are worse than a newborn half the time."

Hell was weird and whoever said that sounds mighty put out.

I could smell the wet dirt of the farm just as good as I could when I was alive. And I could hear what I thought sounded like my Daddy calling my name, but it was so far away sounding. Maybe I was just imagining that. For all of his faults, my Daddy would be crushed when they found my body. I wonder if it was the coyotes that got me?

I'd had an older brother once, or so Momma would say. He didn't listen and the coyotes got him one morning when he tried to get out of working in the fields. At least that was the story I heard every time I tried to get out of work.

"Charlotte Annabelle Dansby! The good book says, idle hands are the devil's playground. You don't want to end up like Richard and get drug off by the coyotes, do you?"

I would always sigh and roll my eyes at Momma, after she'd turned around of course, whenever she said that because I'd asked my Grandma about it once when she visited and she just laughed. Her and Daddy meant well, and I knew that. The small homestead farm we had needed all of us working from sunup until sun down every day. The war had taken its toll on the land, and on our family. We were still recovering. My parents still talked about it like it had just happened last week and not forty-eight years ago. I guess that was fair enough since they both lost older brothers.

Apparently, not much changed out here in rural Texas. Listening to Momma and Daddy talk about when they were growing up sounded a lot like how things were around here when I was growing up. Everything was a million miles away and we only had the wagon to get there.

"I…I had to."

See? Hell is really weird. That voice sounded like it wanted to cry. I wanted to cry hearing it, and not just because my body was filling up with the fire and brimstone that the preacher always swore was gonna get me. There was just something about the sadness in it that touched me.

"Had to, my ass. I GAVE YOU AN ORDER. Get her back now. It's too late for anything else. I'll deal with _you_ when I get back."

That sounded like something my Daddy would say to me if I didn't act like he thought a young lady should be acting. One of the deacon's wives caught me skinny dipping in the creek when I was supposed to be at school one time, and she marched me straight out in the field to Daddy, dripping wet and all. He sent me to the house with those same words. I got a whippin' when he came in from the fields that night but nobody bothered to wonder just what she was doing out at the creek in the middle of the day. I got in more trouble when I brought it up.

Speaking of fire and brimstone, I really want to scream. This shit hurts! I can feel the heat lapping at every inch of my body, consuming me, but not really consuming, because hell never ends.

God the burning. It's too much and I can't _not_ be sucked under the waves as they scorch me. I go through the motions of screaming and I can almost hear it. The pain filled cry sounds a million miles away from my searing body. I can't stop. It doesn't help relieve me, but I can't stop screaming. I don't listen for it anymore; I can't do anything but burn and scream. I try to tear at the dress I was wearing when I died; the calico fabric keeps scrubbing against my skin setting the heat higher and higher. I have no idea if my body is responding or if I even have a body anymore. Suddenly, the burning pain eases slightly, it still is excruciating but I can think again a little.

"Charlotte Dansby! That is no way for a young lady to behave," the teacher said to me as I loomed over Silas Wells with my hand balled up into a fist, ready to strike him again.

I'd just punched him in the nose for pulling my hair. I was 10, and this was another example of why I should've listened better in church. Maybe I should have just said to him, "Silas, I do not eat boogers and my hair does not look like a broom," instead of calling him a sissy boy coward and punching him. Maybe.

Maybe I should have married that boy that Daddy told me to instead of calling him a pimple faced dirt farmer, but I was only 17 at the time and my Daddy should have known me well enough to know that the match was a bad one. I just couldn't see myself being happy being married to someone that I knew had always been a bully. I wasn't a bad person, just a little headstrong.

Momma told me that more than once. There was that time that I came home from the grocer crying my eyes out and Momma sat there on the edge of my bed, running her fingers through my hair as I told her about being cornered by a nasty girl that I'd gone to school with. She'd said the whole community was talking about me. They were saying that I was hateful and thought I was better than them. They said I was already an old maid for it and that I'd always be alone because no man would have me. Momma was having none of that. She stroked my head and sang quietly to me until my sobs quieted then she told me that they didn't understand me; that I was a good person and that when the right man found me he'd never let me go. She didn't leave until my eyes got heavy, and even then I felt her lean to kiss my forehead before she did. That was last week.

"What the fuck are you doing _here_? You're supposed to be training the new ones and getting them fed."

Angry man was back, and he must be the devil. He sounds kinda like I imagined the devil would sound, growly and wild with a deep voice that you couldn't argue with.

"I just came to check, Major. I'm leaving now."

There was the sad voice again. No clue who that was, but he didn't really sound like he belonged here in hell with the rest of us. His voice was like music, really, and I would listen to it more if I could. But this was hell so I knew I wouldn't be able to.

Being dead was exhausting.

They never told you about that in church, but I was here and I was on fire and screaming again and my life kept flickering before me and it was exhausting. I could hear the screams of the other dead people now. It didn't sound like as many people as I thought hell would have, but I'm new here.

The burning sensation grew once more, heaving waves of fire and pain over me and I tried to scream louder. The pain was so intense that I couldn't even remember to pray to the good lord anymore. I guess by being in hell I didn't really have to worry with that. I just wanted the pain to stop. Wave after wave, with no end in sight, washed over me.

It seemed to go on forever and I guess it really would. There was no more passing of time here, just the ever constant burn and the howling screams of the other souls that had been condemned to hell for eternity. From time to time, the devil would speak.

I tried not to listen to him; his voice was always harsh and so full of hate. This place was bad enough without it. Whenever he spoke it was always barked commands that didn't seem to make any sense. Maybe I was the only one without a body though.

I didn't hear the sad voice again. I guess he got into enough trouble the last time I heard him that he wasn't up for borrowing anymore trouble. I just couldn't understand why he was even here to begin with. Nothing else that I heard suggested that there was anything but this burning fire that enveloped us. I knew that I wasn't the only one; the screaming around me had gotten louder now. I could also now hear what sounded like heartbeats. When one of the heartbeats would race wildly out of control, the devil would bark out his commands and it would fade away from the rest of us.

I couldn't help but think about my Momma and my sister. They were like two peas in a pod. They looked so much alike and their temperaments were the same. They were so sweet and kind to everyone. I guess I was just too much like Daddy because there were some folks that really just rubbed me the wrong way and I didn't have a problem spitting in their eye if they did. I tried not to think about my parents or my little sister too much and it wasn't a very hard feat to accomplish. The pain was so intense that it was easy to give in to it and let it course through me with wild abandon. In some ways, it was easier to deal with the burning pain that to think about the fact that I would never see my family again. Well, I'd never see my Momma and my sister again, but my Daddy could be a real son of a bitch sometimes and he might wind up right here in hell with me, but I doubted it.

My own heartbeat, just another echo like those of the people that surrounded me, suddenly began to race. The liquid fire that coursed through me surged, and I was suddenly terrified of what was going to happen when the devil showed up. It wasn't helping with the pounding of my heart, this terror. I swear, if I wasn't already dead this would kill me.

"Move her NOW, don't just stand there!"

I felt hands on what would have been my body if it had been more than just molten lava right now, and I tensed slightly. My heart continued to beat harder and faster, and the heat surged through me. The hands left me, but the spikes of heat that they caused didn't end. I wasn't screaming anymore because I was too damn scared. I couldn't hear the others' heartbeats anymore, just my own.

"Try not to fuck this up Peter. You know what to do if she ain't gonna work."

My wildly pounding heart just…stopped. What the ever lovin' hell was going on? I was already dead, right? I mean, wait, there was no burning anymore. There was a burning in my throat, but it was nothing compared to what I had been experiencing before.

I heard quiet footsteps approaching me, and then the rustle of fabric. I sat up quickly at the sounds and slowly opened my eyes to see a pair of red eyes looking back at me. I leaned forward slightly and studied the man sitting before me with the red eyes. Who was he? Did I know him? Should I know him? There was something about the gorgeous blond sitting next to me with the deep red eyes and I don't know what came over me. My eyes widened a little and he smirked at me. That's when I pounced on him.

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**E/N: I hope you're not too discouraged already. Trust me, the next chapter will explain more. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you to those of you that have started following this story and put me on alerts. Don't get your lighters out to burn me, but that little cliffie I left you with last time? Yeah, we're not there yet. This would be my smoking hot husband's POV of the events taking place. I promise, we'll get to the cliffie and find out if I rip his arm off straight away.**

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This was wrong on so many levels, but it felt so right that I just had to do it. My eyes flickered down to the curvy blond in my arms as I heard Jasper approaching and I eased her body to the ground and stood over her to wait on him to hand me my ass again.

"What the fuck Peter?" his quickly darkening eyes took in the woman at my feet and he just shook his head. "How in the ever lovin'…I swear you are worse than a newborn half the time."

I wasn't really but the fucker was annoyed with me and I really had fucked up this time so I didn't goad him. We both turned in the direction of the farmhouse when we heard a man's voice calling a name, Charlotte. I looked down at the woman once again, taking in her appearance once more. She looked like a Charlotte.

"I," I started, running my hand along the back of my neck as I looked into Jasper's eyes, but they were drawn back to the woman, "I had to."

Major Jasper Whitlock, king of the glare, didn't disappoint me. I could feel his eyes boring into me, could see him in the corner of my eye. This time was no different than any other time; there was something in my head telling me that I _had_ to do this. The man's voice at the farmhouse called for her again and I heard Jasper's frustrated growl.

"Had to, my ass," he said. "I GAVE YOU AN ORDER. Get her back now. It's too late for anything else. I'll deal with _you_ when I get back."

With that final bit of cheer, the Major was gone. And as much as I hated to admit it, he was technically right. I was supposed to be grabbing snacks for the newborns not making more. But I'd come this way and I had to stop.

I leaned down and gently picked up Charlotte, holding her close to me as I ran away from her home. I could feel the curves of her body and slowed down because as soon as I got back I would have to put her down and I wanted to savor the way she felt pressed against me. I hadn't meant for this to happen.

I stopped running altogether and looked down at her, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face. She was…beautiful. How the fuck could I have done this? I stopped running towards the small town for the newborn's snacks just as she'd come out of the small farmhouse and I stayed in the shadow of the barn to watch. She looked madder than hell, stomping around the yard and practically pelting the poor chickens with their food. I had to suppress a laugh. Until she ran into the barn and I could smell her tears.

I don't know why I went to her. I shouldn't have. I should have just gone on about my business but I couldn't make my feet do more than go in that barn. She didn't scream and yell, but I didn't give her much of a chance to either. As soon as she turned and saw me, her eyes widened and I was there with my teeth at her neck.

Fuck knows why I didn't just drain her. I couldn't do it. I've never been unable to feed but wrong didn't even begin to cover how this had felt. I just knew that she was mine and I had to take care of her, not have her for dinner. Well, not yet. Fuck, I was a sick man, fantasizing about an unconscious woman. I leapt over a ditch, pulling her curves a little more into my body and realized that I might be a sick man, but I had damn good taste.

We were close to the camp now, but I didn't want to let her go. I didn't know what other option I had though, not with her burning. I walked over to the nursery, a shed where we kept all of the fresh ones, the ones that were still burning, and I hesitated. Why did it feel so _off _to dump her in here? That's how we handled this sort of thing. Jasper or I would go out, scout the potentials then bite them and dump them here until their heartbeats sped up. Then, they'd get moved to wake up. It was an easy system, and it worked.

I walked over to the far wall, still cradling her in my arms as I looked for someplace to put her. There was very little space, so I kicked a changing body out of the way so that she would be as comfortable as I could make her and lay her softly down next to the wall. Only this time it really didn't seem like the right thing to do. I didn't have a choice though; this is how things were done. I smoothed her wind ruffled hair from her face as I squatted beside her. Charlotte. I hoped this didn't kill her. I really hoped she'd survive what my venom was doing to her human body.

I could hear the bitch outside barking out orders and bellowing for Jasper. I gave my girl a last glance and left the building to head off Maria before she got really worked up. Jasper and I approached her at the same time, just from different directions and he raised a brow at me. I gave him the slightest nod and moved to stand beside him while Maria let us know what she was all riled up about. It really didn't take a genius to figure out Maria. She wanted to go over strategy for tomorrow night's fight, so the two of us followed her and indulged her last minute questions about what we had planned.

Meetings with Maria always lasted too long, no matter how brief they were. That woman was pure evil and I hated her nearly beyond reason. She'd toyed with me when I was a newborn, just like she did all the others. I'd not complained because, well, frankly I knew I'd be killed for it. This life was not what I would have chosen in a million years, but dead is dead and I wasn't ready to be there yet so I'd gone along with the sick bitch until she was bored with me.

I'd been here for 31 years. Longer than I'd been human and at times it seemed like there was nothing to do but fight and fuck and wait on the sun to go down and do it all over again. This wasn't one of those times. There was the slightest shimmer of hope that just maybe there could be more than the monotony of this never ending war and my girl's screams reaching me from the nursery. I caught myself heading back in the direction of the nursery instead of where I should have been going twice and cursed the woman lying in there. All this questioning bullshit was because of her.

When Jasper finally finished up with the queen of cunts, he came and found me. I already knew that he would be pissed. Not about bringing back a burning body, but about it being that particular burning body. She wasn't quite what we normally brought back. He grabbed my throat and slammed me into the ground in greeting. I lightly sniffed the air and he reeked of sex and Maria so I knew that the bad mood that he'd had in the field outside of Charlotte's human home was nothing compared to what was going to be coming at me now.

"She better have a gift Peter," he snarled in my face.

"I don't know, Major," I told him honestly, "you know I don't know."

Jasper released his hold on my neck and looked to be only marginally calmer. I sat up as his eyes surveyed the camp.

"You know what will happen if she doesn't," he said.

I think we were both shocked at the quiet growl that was my initial response to him. Jasper wasn't being a bastard on purpose, it was just this place and the rules and he wanted to make sure that I remembered them. I didn't care if she was gifted or not, the rules just would _not_ apply here. She wouldn't become a camp whore, for the newborns to use until they'd ripped her apart in an argument.

"Major," I said to him with a grin and a wink as I tapped my finger to the side of the head.

Jasper gave me another of his camp-famous death glares and left without another word. I sighed unnecessarily and my head turned back towards the nursery. God, I hope she's gifted, or one hell of a fighter. Maybe it would just be better if she died during the change. My chest actually ached at that thought, but I would rather she die than be subjected to this camp if she couldn't fight or didn't have a gift. I decided right then that I would make damn sure that if she couldn't fight when she woke up, she would be able to soon after and I didn't really give two shits what it took to make that happen.

The rest of my night and the following day passed much like all of the others had in this life. I took five nearly rabid newborns and tried to teach them how to kill whatever we pointed them at. Once I was satisfied with their progress, I would take them to the feed house and give each of them just enough blood to not use their newly refined skills on each other for a while. Then, I repeated the process with five more. On and on it went. It had been like this since I'd passed my year mark, almost. I grew more and more brutal with my training methods as the night passed. Visions of Charlotte taunted me as I worked with the newborns, her bent over as I took her from behind, her tits bouncing as she rode me, her covered in the blood of her first kill and every time one of the scenes featuring her blond curves played, I'd rip something off of one of the newborns.

I should have died after my first year, but I was really good in a fight. I always had been. Hell, Jasper had found me outside of a saloon in 1882 wailing the shit out of some drunken asshole that was being out of line. Knowing what I know now, I'm sure my ability to pummel another human like that is what drew Jasper to me. I never could remember too much about the circumstances around my change. I remembered my Ma and Pa from before, and the simple life that we'd all led out in our small German community in the hill country. I remembered all of the hopes and dreams that I used to have. I remembered my first name. And I remembered everything since Jasper changed me. Every damn detail.

We had a fight tonight, and me being all sentimental about my lost human life wouldn't help with what was ahead; it was time to fuck shit up and I planned on channeling my rage at the upheaval that Charlotte had wrought to my previously simple existence. I stood at Jasper's right and stared out into the darkness. The newborns behind us were starving and getting restless already. I was just ready for this shit to be over with so I could get back to the camp and hopefully purge myself of these damn bipolar thoughts that I was having. Fuckin' Charlotte.

There was the slightest of movements in the darkness and Jasper gave me a slight nod. I turned towards the newborns and nodded in the direction we were heading. I knew they'd follow me; I was Poppa Peter, their big daddy, the one that fed them. It should have made me sick, but it was true and it wouldn't stop me from helping Jasper rip them apart and burn them when they weren't useful anymore. I took one step forward and they all surged past Jasper and I. I turned to look back at Jasper and gave him a half ass salute before joining the newborns on the battlefield.

The thing about this sort of battle is it doesn't really matter who you're fighting or why, you just rip and shred until there's no one left coming at you. That's exactly what I did. As soon as I met the edge of the fray, I felt the sting of a bite on my forearm and quickly turned into the newborn that had given it to me. It was automatic to wrap myself around them and sink my teeth into their neck while giving their hair a little tug. No more newborn. I dropped the head and kicked it away from its body before moving on to the next. I wasted no time removing arms and legs, unless the target was more advanced. That was a waste of movement and a waste of time. I wanted this shit done, burned and over with as soon as fucking possible.

It was an easy and familiar rhythm to fall into; sting, bite, remove, easy shit. The whole thing took thirty minutes from start to finish and when nothing else was coming at me, I straightened my stance and surveyed the field. I'd lost a few of mine, but I still had a good dozen so I was counting it a success.

"Alright cock suckers," I said to my remaining dozen, "fall in, you're not finished yet."

They knew this. There were only a couple that had never been out before and though the newborns spent most of their time nearly feral I knew that they talked among each other enough to know that they still have clean-up and disposal duty to handle.

"Get this shit cleared," I told them, "Two fires. Let me see you fucking around and I'll let you pick which one you want to go in. Now get to work."

Jasper approached me as I finished giving the newborns their instructions, and unwilling to question me yet, he just sent me a little taste of curiosity. I didn't know what he had to be curious about. This was all bog standard war mongering for us. I hadn't done anything different than normal.

"You didn't lose many," he said to me as we stood there watching them all work.

"Nope," I answered as the scent of burning vampire flesh began to reach us, "I think that extra session this afternoon helped. Plus, I gave them a little something after it so they weren't quite as wild as normal."

"Head back and clean up," he replied with a hand on my shoulder that meant I wasn't released from my duties here just yet. "I'll get them home and fed and then me and you are going to have a little chat."

I gave him a firm nod and he took his hand off of my shoulder, freeing me to run back to the camp. I ran fast, away from Jasper and his curiosity or towards the camp and that woman that I couldn't seem to get out of my mind, I didn't know. I went straight to my tent cursing the both of them in my mind. It wasn't much, but I had a bucket of water to clean off all of the dirt and venom of a fight and a change of clothes that were clean. I didn't need too much else. Cleaning up wasn't as easy as I thought it would be, every time I ran the cool rag over my skin there she was. Fuckin' Charlotte. I had a raging hard on now thanks to my perfect recall of those curves of hers pressed up against mine and I debated if it would be quicker to jerk off or will the thing away. This damn woman was gonna be the death of me.

I quickly cleaned up and changed then found myself wandering through the camp. I was headed towards the nursery again, and I didn't stop myself this time. One of the older newborns sat just outside of the door, monitoring the heartbeats of every person in the nursery and with strict orders to get Jasper as soon as one sped up. I didn't spare him a glance as I strode into the building. My eyes immediately went to Charlotte's curvaceous form. My ears immediately isolated her heartbeat. I didn't go over to her. I just stood there and watched her until I heard the sounds of the group returning from the fight. I turned on my heel and left the nursery as soon as the sound reached me.

I crossed the camp and stood outside of Jasper's tent knowing that he would call me in when he was ready for our little talk. He didn't keep me waiting long and I couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. With the Major, you never really knew until it was too late.

"What the ever lovin' fuck was that out there?" his voice was quiet so that we wouldn't be overheard, but I could still hear the tension in it. Jasper didn't like quiet unless it meant he was fucking with someone's emotions. Otherwise, he was more of the raging bellowing sort.

"That was good trainin' Major," I replied with a slight grin. "You're welcome."

"Bullshit Peter and you know it," he growled at me. "I don't know what your problem is but you need to sort it out. Fast."

I needed to figure out a better way to deal with all of this because his tone said that he wasn't playing around. He kept me around, but I knew that it was entirely at his discretion that I was still alive. I would get in my licks before he would be able to take me out, but there was no doubt that given his gift; he would win any fight between the two of us. It might have been a different story if he couldn't drop you to your knees and paralyze you with fear, but he could and did and I didn't want to see it happen to me.

"I don't know what's going on," I told him as I looked him straight in the eye. "I probably just need to feed again."

I knew it wasn't that, and he knew that it wasn't that, but I needed more time to figure this shit out and this was a way to get that time that wouldn't put either of us in the position of having to fight the other.

"Then go now," he said sternly, "and when you get back start training. We've got a couple that should be up and ready by the time you get back."

I didn't want to leave the camp, but I knew that I had no hope of figuring anything out while I was there. I was careless in my hunt. I didn't go to a town and find a dark alley. I ran far and fast and went to the first house that I came across and killed the man and woman that were peacefully sleeping in their bed before taking a seat at their table. I scrubbed my hands up and down my face in an attempt to jump start the whole getting my shit together thing but it didn't really work. I pounded my fist onto their table in anger and frustration at the disorienting bullshit that was keeping me off balance ever since my teeth sank into Charlotte's neck. The table cracked then shuddered and fell to the floor.

The only purpose being here had served was to make me anxious about taking so much time away from her, though my time wasn't hers to have. Fuckin' Charlotte. My life might not have been a rose garden before she came stomping across my path with fire in her eyes and her amazing tits bouncing with every step, but it was a hell of a lot simpler than this. I had no idea exactly what the draw was that she had over me and even though it was making my non-life a very confusing thing right now the thought of that draw going away filled me with emptiness and made me want to kill someone.

I was attempting to lie to myself and I knew it. I was pretty sure what the draw was that she had over me and it was terrifying so I was just refusing to acknowledge it. It was a tempting thing of beauty in this far too ugly world and I knew that if I acknowledged it, if I let it show that it would end us both. I knew because I'd seen it before but only a couple of times and each time it had come up it had been snuffed out with fire. I wasn't so big a pussy as to keep on denying to myself what had happened, but I would damn sure do everything in my power to make sure that it didn't end in fire this time. I needed a better plan.

I stood from the table and crossed to the stove in the corner where I knew that I would find a box of matches. I started upstairs and walked through the house, striking matches and setting things on fire and I didn't stop until I was out the front door and the entire house was up in blazes. I didn't look back and I didn't regret what I had done to that couple in that house.

Everything that happened tonight was just a part of this life. The violence was all there was for any of us and it was the price that we paid for living forever. I ran back towards the camp wondering why in the hell I had bitten Charlotte when I knew that all that there would be for her was a life of constant battle and most likely a very short life at that.

I was glad that I'd run so far away from the camp for my meal but the run back seemed to take longer and my anxiety over leaving my very helpless girl in the camp kept rising until I could make out the camp on the horizon. I went straight to the nursery. I didn't go to let Jasper know that I was back from my hunt, and I didn't go to do what he'd told me to do when I got back. I couldn't stop myself. I needed to see her again.

I strode into the nursery again, but it wasn't enough this time to just stand there and look at her. I crossed the room and squatted next to Charlotte's still form. I reached out and ran my fingers through her sweat soaked hair. Even though it had sweat and dirt in it, it felt like silk between my fingers. I didn't know if touching her would cause her anymore pain than my venom already was but I couldn't stop. I was so taken by her, by simply touching her and sitting next to her that the heavy footsteps registered only a moment before the voice.

"What the fuck are you doing _here_?" the Major asked me, not even attempting to disguise the venom in his voice. "You're supposed to be training the new ones and getting them fed."

"I just came to check, Major," It was a stupid answer and I knew that he'd busted me ignoring my duties to him and doing something that I shouldn't have been doing. I knew that Jasper was tasting my emotional climate right now and there was no way for me to hide what I felt while I was sitting next to Charlotte and stroking her hair. "I'm leaving now."

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**E/N: I'm glad y'all are reading the story and I'd love to know what you're thinking about it. Leave me a review and let me know if you love it or hate it. Next chapter, we'll get that little cliffie issue resolved, I promise. I've already got it written and I think it will shock you. Lord knows it shocked Peter!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Don't get spoiled, but I've got another chapter for you today, and it's a longer one. You might be waiting a day or two for the next one. When you get grumpy about that, remember I gave you this one early.**

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"You bit her, you deal with her ass," Jasper said to me before nodding towards the nursery.

I walked inside with him close on my heels and my eyes automatically went to Charlotte. Her heart was starting to speed up. It was time.

"Move her NOW, don't just stand there!" Jasper growled at me with a shove to the shoulder.

I walked over and leaned down to pick her up. I cradled her body to mine again, loving the feel of her curves. Normally I'd just throw them over my shoulder and when Jasper raised an eyebrow about the way I was carrying her, I dropped my eyes to her chest and looked back at him with a smirk. He just shook his head and followed me to the furthest wake up shack. Before I could enter and get my girl settled for her second birthday, I felt his hand on my shoulder.

"Try not to fuck this up Peter," he said before dropping his hand and turning to walk away. He called back to me, "You know what to do if she ain't gonna work."

I looked at the shack in front of me and rolled my eyes because yeah, I was gonna make sure she would work. It wasn't like I hadn't done this kind of shit before. Dealing with the fresh newborns was just another wonderful aspect of my role here. I really hoped I wouldn't have to rip off her arm.

I lay her gently onto the ground and went to stand in the doorway, just watching her. I could hear her heart racing; it was nearly time for her to wake up now so I stepped further into the room to wait for that final beat. It wasn't long before her heartbeat stopped. She didn't move so I slowly moved to her side. It was possible that she had just died, but I didn't think so.

I squatted down, about three feet away from her to look her over. She bolted upright and stared right at me. Her eyes were full of questions then they widened just like they had right before I bit her and I couldn't stop my smirk because all it took was those eyes and I knew without a doubt that she was mine.

She jumped me as soon as she noticed the smirk, and I wasn't complaining at all. Her knees straddling my hips, her sitting, grinding, _exactly_ where I wanted her to only with way too many clothes between us, why in the hell would I complain. I just kept smirking up at her. She leaned down over me, and I put my hands on her hips and looked down the top of her dress at the most amazing set of tits I had ever laid my eyes on. When she ran her tongue up my neck I just groaned a little.

"Hey there to you too Charlotte," I said with a little chuckle causing her to sit up on me once more, which in turn caused _me_ to sit up a little straighter if you know what I mean.

She smiled at that. Not a sweet, innocent, Sunday school smile but one of those knowing smiles that women have and she started unbuttoning her dress. Well, she tried unbuttoning her dress. She ended up just sorta ripping it down the front and growling at it as she tossed it aside. I couldn't stop staring at her tits while she did that. They were amazing, so full and pert and practically begging me to take one in my mouth. I ran my hand up her thigh to her hip and she reached for the buttons on my shirt. I let her have at the buttons because I had another shirt back in my tent and this shit was hot. She shredded it as well as my pants. This was one hell of a newborn wake up.

She leaned down and pressed her lips to mine, a tad forcefully but she _was_ a newborn. I parted my lips under hers and licked her bottom lip, getting my first taste of her. Her flavor shot straight to my cock and Tex twitched against her. She pulled back slightly and looked at me again with those questioning eyes before bringing her lips to mine again. This time when I lapped at her bottom lip, and Tex started twitching, she parted her lips for me.

While our tongues tangled, she shifted her hips just so and I could smell her arousal as it thickened the air around me. I wanted to grab her hips and thrust up into her but she'd just woken up so I thought letting her drive would be a nice little wake up present for her. I was _right there_ and I knew that she could feel Tex twitching against her. She moaned into my mouth, Tex jerked and was seated just inside her soaking wet pussy.

She broke our kiss and those bright red questioning eyes of hers had darkened and found mine and she leaned back slightly, taking more of me inside. I moved my hands to cup her breasts and brushed my thumb over her erect nipples. She moaned again; Tex jerked again and then…pure fuckin' heaven. She'd seated herself on me with a small gasp. I moved my hands to grasp her hips and raised my hips to press into her further.

She leaned back over me capturing my lips and the movement brought her a taste of the friction that she didn't know she was looking for. I pushed into her once more and withdrew and it was a true testament to her hold over me that I wasn't pounding into her sweetness right now. She felt so good on top of me, around me. It was so right, but she was running on pure instinct and not experience and if our first time together had to be on the floor of a wake up shack then I was going to make sure that it was as good for her as I could make it. She was so wet, and warm, and tight around me that I was struggling to keep my thrusts into her slow and gentle.

My girl had other plans.

She placed her palms on my chest and leaned back and began to ride me. My instincts took over and I flipped us even though I was really enjoying watching her tits bounce in front of me. I wrapped her legs around my waist and thrust roughly into her a few times.

"Mine," I growled as I pushed into her again.

Her arms wound around my neck and she pulled me in for another kiss. I dominated her mouth, and then pulled back, steadily pumping inside of her. My forehead was pressed to hers and her moans of pleasure filled the space around us. My thrusts were urgent now, and she raised her hips to meet each one. I could feel the walls of her pussy contracting lightly around me and each pulse of pleasure sent a jolt through me. The tension building in my gut rose higher and higher with every thrust, every squeeze that her walls gave me. I wrapped my arms under her, my hands gripping her shoulders, pulling her into me. She closed her eyes and her hands had a painful grip on my shoulders. She was ready, and I was about to lose it. The tension settled in my balls, tightening them, and I thrust deeply into her with a roar. I sank my teeth into the curve of her neck and exploded inside of her. Her walls clamped down around me and she roared at her climax.

I moved gently within her, easing us both down from our high and removed my teeth from her neck. Her grip on my shoulders eased and I lapped at the bite mark that I'd just given her. She began to quietly purr, and in answer, so did I. When the fluttering of her walls around me eased, I pulled out from her and raised my head from the crook of her neck to look into her eyes.

"I'm Peter," I said to her with a smile. "It's nice to meet you."

"You bit me," she said to me. It was the first time that I'd heard her voice and it was pure sex. Tex twitched again.

"I sure did," I told her, still giving her that cheesy grin. "I'm sure it'll happen again."

"I can't believe you bit me," she said as she moved to sit up. I rolled off of her so that she could and she continued, "The sex was good though."

My cheesy grin morphed into a smirk and I just shrugged at her.

"I aim to please, Darlin'," I said.

"That was my first time," she said to me and dropped her eyes. "I don't know what came over me."

I reached over and ran a finger along her jaw line, getting her to look back at me.

"Instinct," I answered her and I could see the fire returning to her eyes.

"I'm not a whore you asshole," she growled out, "I told you that was my first time."

"Not what I meant," I said to her with a sigh. "There is a lot of shit that needs to happen in a very little amount of time Darlin'. There's a lot that you don't know yet. I'm going to need you to trust me."

She nodded and opened her mouth to say something but I held up my hand to stop her. I had a plan. It was shitty, but it was all I had to work with and she was going to have to play her part well for it to work. I wasn't lying; she was going to have to trust me to keep her alive no matter how much I knew she'd hate my plan.

"Later Darlin'," I said to her and stood up. "Right now, I need you to come bite me."

"Bite you?" she asked and shook her head. "No."

I held out my hand to help her stand up, but she just glared at it and stood up on her own and her hands went straight to her hips. It didn't seem to bother her that we were both standing here nekkid as the day we were born and I wasn't complaining because I was enjoying the view.

"Just do it," I said to her. "You've got to trust me. If you don't do this, I may not be able to keep you safe."

"Where," she asked, her eyes roaming my body. I could smell her arousal again. Tex twitched at the scent and she laughed quietly.

"Here," I said, pointing to my shoulder, "and here." I pointed at my thigh. This was going to hurt like a bitch, but it had a chance of keeping her safe.

"You better not get cum all over me," she said as she stepped closer to me. Her lips hovered above the skin on my shoulder, "I mean it."

I was doing a shitty job of explaining all of this to her, hell a lot of it I didn't fully understand but there would be time for explanations and questions later if I could get this to work. Her teeth broke the skin on my shoulder and I held back my hiss at the stinging sensation. She leaned over and bit my thigh just as I'd asked her. Then my girl, like lightening, reached her head around and bit my ass.

"What the hell?" I hissed at her. "I didn't say nothing about biting my ass!"

"I know," she laughed in response, "I just felt like it."

I grabbed my shredded pants and put them on, holding them up with one hand.

"You," I pointed at Charlotte and said in my Poppa Peter voice, "stay here and don't move. I'll be right back with something for you to wear. Don't even make a sound, no matter what you hear or smell."

"But what if," she began but I shook my head at her.

"No what ifs," I told her, "Just do it."

I crossed to her and cupped her chin, tilting her face up to mine before lightly brushing my lips over hers. I didn't want to leave her here like this but it was a better choice than having her walk her fine ass through the camp half nekkid.

"I'll be right back," I said softly to my girl.

The anger on my face was real as I left the shack. I didn't try to hide the pissed off that I was feeling at having to leave. Jasper could feel my emotions, but he didn't know what caused them and pissed off worked for me right now. I stormed across the camp towards my tent holding my pants up with one hand and sporting the fresh bite mark that I'd had Charlotte give me on my shoulder. As I passed Jasper, the slightest hint of a smile crossed his eyes and I just shot him the bird. He took that as an invitation to come talk with me, the asshole.

"So," he said as he followed me into my tent not bothering to hide the humor in his voice, "I'm guessing this means she can fight?"

I glared at him and dropped my pants. His eyes took in the bite mark on my thigh and her dried juices on my cock. He raised an eyebrow. I grabbed another pair of pants and turned to put them on and heard Jasper laugh for the first time in all of the years that I'd known him. Bastard saw the fresh bite mark on my ass.

"She can fight," I said as I pulled on a shirt and reached for another one.

"You feed her yet," he asked, another laugh threatening to erupt. I just glared at him harder.

"I'm going to do that now," I said to him holding up the extra shirt. "I thought she should at least have something on when I walked her through the camp."

"She any good?" he asked me and I fought to contain my growl. Now was not the time, and Jasper was not the person to get into this with.

"Good enough," I lied. She was fucking amazing, but I wasn't going to tell him that. "I want to keep her here for a bit, get full use out of her."

"Fine," he replied, "just make sure she is trained in more than just getting you off."

"I will Major," I said to him as I pushed past him to leave.

"Get her some fucking britches once she's fed," he called to me as I stormed back across camp. I held up an arm with my middle finger extended in reply.

She was standing right where I'd left her. I walked into the shack and held up my spare shirt for her to see.

"Here," I said. "Let me help you put this on."

"I can dress myself," she said real pissy and reached for the shirt but I moved it out of her reach.

"You _used_ to be able to dress yourself," I told her, "and you _will_ be able to dress yourself again but right now you can't." I pointed to her destroyed dress lying in the corner to illustrate my point. "This is the only extra shirt I have and I don't want you shredding it yet."

"I think this is gonna work," I said to her as I helped her into my shirt. "You're gonna be staying with me."

"Where else would I stay?" she asked me as I finished buttoning the shirt.

"You don't want to know," I replied curtly. "I'm gonna take you to feed now. Keep your eyes on the ground and stay with me."

She did as I asked while we walked through the camp. I took her over to the barn that housed all of the humans we kept on hand to feed the newborns. There weren't a lot because we just didn't feed them very much. Her eyes widened at the smell of the humans and I grabbed her upper arm before she could take off. I wasn't going to let her be hungry, like I would any other newborn that I brought here, but I couldn't have her making a big mess out of the place either. That would raise too many questions and probably cause a riot that would end with the two of us as a pile of ashes. She turned to look at me when I grabbed her arm and I shook my head slightly.

"Not yet," I said quietly. "I'm going to help you with this."

I wanted to feed her. Not just because it was my job but because she was my girl and I wanted to provide her with everything that she needed. With my hand still on her arm, we walked into the barn. The stalls that used to be for horses now housed humans, and I took her to a stall that had two inside of it. We stepped inside and I bolted the door behind us. I leaned close to her ear.

"Alright Darlin'," I said quietly, "these are yours. I'm gonna take you to the first one and let you have at it, but the second one I will be helping you with."

She nodded at me and I walked her over to the first human and let go of her arm. She was on him in less than a second and I had a raging boner just watching her as she fed. She was a hot mess and it was beautiful. She tore into the man's forearm when he tried to shield himself from her and growled in frustration when his blood spurted in her face instead of her mouth. His screams of pain just seemed to piss her off. She found his neck and ripped it open in her zeal and I could see the blood dripping from her chin as she drained him. God I wanted to bury myself in her right then. I reached down and adjusted my pants just as she dropped the man's lifeless body and turned to me. Her eyes went straight to my hand and darkened though she'd just fed.

"I want more," she purred at me with that sex kitten voice of hers and it wasn't real clear if she meant the blood or my cock.

It didn't matter, she could have both. I crossed to her and licked some of the blood from her chin while she rubbed herself against me. Both sounded like a good idea to me. I grabbed the second man and bit into his neck, taking a deep pull of his blood before removing my teeth. I brought the wound to her mouth.

"Don't bite," I said to her as she took the man, "just drink."

She closed her eyes and did as I told her and I unbuttoned her shirt as she did. Her eyes popped open and found mine when she felt my tongue flick across her nipple. I ran a hand up her inner thigh and she moaned into the man's neck. When I slipped a finger into her wet heat, she growled. I pumped my finger into her a few times before removing it and sucked it clean to shed my clothes and get that shirt off of her. I was going to need to taste that again from the source, and soon.

Once I had our clothes off and tossed into the corner of the stall, I grasped my cock and began stroking myself as I watched her. Her eyes were on me, and they were black as she stood there holding the man's neck to her mouth. The screams of pain that he'd started when I bit him were starting to fade into moans of unconsciousness. I moved behind her.

"Keep drinking Darlin'," I said to her as I eased her legs apart and teased her with my cock.

I spread her lower lips and brushed the head of my dick over her clit before sheathing myself inside of her. Fuckin' heaven. Jesus, my girl was hot and wet and oh so tight. I moved my hands to her hips and pulled her back into me with a groan.

"You're so wet," I growled out lowly as I thrust into her, "all for me."

I continued to pump into her as she drained the man. When she dropped his lifeless body at her feet, I reached around her and found her clit. I circled it with my fingers and instantly felt her walls begin to shudder around my thrusts. I wrapped my arm around her waist and forced her to bend over more.

"You like that," I asked her as I pounded into her.

"Yes," she moaned, "Oh God yes."

Her sex voice went straight to my dick and I increased my speed and the movements on her clit. Her pussy began spasming wildly around me and I could feel the tightness in my balls that meant I was close.

"You are mine," I growled at her, emphasizing my words with rough thrusts into her sex. "I want you to scream my name when you cum."

She moaned again and her pussy clamped down hard on me. I lightly pinched her clit and pushed into her as deep as I could get.

"Now Charlotte," I said to her as I thrust into her one final time.

"OH GOD PETER!" she screamed as she began to milk my cock dry.

I continued moving in her, barely pulling out and pushing back in as I felt my own orgasm rip through me. I stilled my movements as the fluttering of her sex began to wane, my dick twitched inside her with every caress her walls made. When the fluttering stopped, I pulled out of her but kept my arm around her waist. I turned her in my arms and leaned down to run my nose up her neck. She smelled of me and I growled my satisfaction. She ran her hand across my chest and looked up at me with questions in her eyes.

"You didn't bite me," she stated simply.

"No," I answered her.

"Why not?" she asked, her hand stilling its movement. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No Darlin'," I said, brushing my lips over hers, "You didn't do anything wrong. Let me get you dressed so we can get you some pants. I promise, in a few hours that we'll talk, ok?"

"Ok," she said with a little nod.

I got us both dressed, and managed to find a pair of pants small enough to fit her. She stayed by my side with her head down the whole time. I knew that she needed answers and I planned to give them to her but the show must go on and the answers would keep through a few hours of training.

After she was fully dressed, I took her with me and picked up four other newborns to take to the training field. I paired them off, as usual, and kept Charlotte with me. My girl was a spitfire, and caught on to my instruction pretty quick which really made me want to puff out my chest with pride but I didn't praise her or make a big deal out of it in front of the other newborns. I was hardest on her, and by the end of the session they were looking at her with the closest thing to pity the wild newborns around here could muster up. I took her along with the others back to the feed house, but didn't let her feed again which earned her more looks from them. She didn't seem to mind and her eyes found mine as we watched the others share their human. A hint of a smile crossed her lips and I winked at her.

Having four or five newborns share one human was a delicate operation, and it was something that I'd worked out about twenty years ago to save Jasper and I the trouble of having to bring in so many blood bags. It kept them thirsty enough that they were as savage as we wanted them, but it backfired from time to time when their tempers got in the way of their good sense. Today was a backfire day and they pulled the human apart before they'd finished.

"Alright numb nuts," I said as the idiots clung to their bit of human trying to get more blood, "I think you're done. Drop it."

None of them had gotten more than a couple of pulls and I knew that they were practically starving but they obviously needed to learn some table manners. I wasn't giving them another one. Most of them listened to me and did as they were told, but there was one that was only a few hours older than Charlotte. The dumb fuck growled at me; he had yet to learn that Daddy didn't like it when the kids talked back. I sighed and rolled my eyes as I walked over to him. The other newborns cleared out of my way.

Without a word, I reached out and grabbed his arm. Sinking my teeth into his shoulder, I removed it before he could react. I'd been doing this a lot longer than him and one training session with me wasn't enough to get him up to my skill level of fighting. I smacked him in the back of the head with his own hand.

"I said drop it," I growled at him and he finally dropped what was left of his dinner. I held his arm up and waved it in his face. "This stays with me. I doubt you'll get it back. Hope you can jerk off with your other hand."

I turned and led them back to the newborn area of the camp, my girl's face registered shock at what she'd seen me do but she followed me and kept her eyes down just like I'd told her to. I released the newborns to their area and swinging the dumbass' arm as I walked headed back towards my tent with Charlotte in tow. I tossed the arm into a low fire as we passed it and heard her suck in a breath when the flames grew and engulfed it.

The sun was just peeking over the trees when we got to my tent and I pulled the flap open for her and waved her inside. She brushed me as she passed and all I could think about was watching her tits bounce again while she rode me. She opened her mouth to say something but I shook my head at her.

"Not yet," I said, "I have one more thing to do and then I'll be back."

I went to Jasper's tent and gave him my report for the day. He didn't ask any questions about my girl and I didn't volunteer any information about her. He was in a bad mood, but there was nothing new there. I blamed his piss poor attitude on the fact that Maria wanted him for the whole day. I felt bad for him, he hated the time that he spent with her but he knew that there was nothing that he could do about it other than comply. I laid my hand on his shoulder briefly before I left him to go back to my tent and my girl.

I walked into my tent and she was there, sitting on a pallet that she'd made and waiting for me. I looked down at her and smiled. Today would be a rough day for her and I was glad that I was going to be here. I sat down next to her and we began to talk quietly.

It wasn't as rough as I thought it would be, but she'd still ended up in my lap as I answered her questions and told her about the problems that would come about if it was discovered that she was my mate. We talked about the plan that I had to keep us both alive and she wasn't really happy that I was playing her off as nothing more than a whore, but she understood the reasons. I got to watch her tits bounce after we were done talking so I figured she couldn't be too mad at me over any of the things that I'd already done or told her that I would do.

She stayed in my tent during the days for her first two months and I trained her in every session at night. My girl was a trooper and she caught on really quick that the key to my entire plan was for both of us to deny our instincts. She was a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield. She wasn't the best fighter that I've ever seen but she was fierce and determined and that more than made up for any talent that she lacked in my eyes.

It killed me to send her back to the newborn area, but she always smelled of me and they didn't mess with her too much. It helped that I knew that she would be able to handle herself. I had done all that I could to prepare her for it and she took it in stride. I think she handled the entire situation a lot better than I did. I was a nervous wreck every time she got pulled for a fight, and hiding that shit from the Major wasn't an easy feat. He didn't confront me until she was six months old.

We were standing on a rise watching the newborns spar. My eyes were only for Charlotte and I was imagining her lips wrapped around my cock again. It was something that we had discovered she was a born natural at, and I swore that it was her gift. I knew shit, and she could suck my cock like there was no tomorrow.

"She's a problem Peter," the Major said, breaking into my very detailed fantasy.

"She's not a problem," I said to him honestly. She wasn't a problem, not for me. She might be a problem to Jasper but to me she was nothing less than everything.

"We're gonna have to cull her," he said to me and I shook my head.

"Nope," I said, "she's a damn good fighter. We need to keep her."

"We can't," he said. "She's gonna start getting weaker soon."

"She'll be fine," I replied.

"She's a whore Peter," he said dismayed. "Her shit can't be that much better than any other whore's. You can get another one."

"We need to keep her," I nearly growled out crossing my arms over my chest. "I won't replace her."

He didn't say anything else that day, but I felt him watching the two of us. He found reasons to watch our practices, to watch her feed, he was everywhere that we were and it was starting to piss me off and panic me. I started making it a point whenever he and I were alone to argue for keeping her past her year mark.

I talked with Charlotte about the Major. I made sure that she knew that he was watching us, feeling us as we were together. She knew what it meant by now, and she reluctantly agreed with him that her strength was declining. She wanted to run.

"Run to where Charlotte," I asked her one day in my tent as her nekkid body was half draped over mine.

"Anywhere," she answered.

"Everywhere is just like here," I told her with a sigh. "At least here I am in a position to keep you safe."

"I still think running would be best," she replied.

We had that conversation no less than forty-seven times as her year mark approached. Jasper wasn't giving in. He kept insisting that she had to go and she kept insisting that we had to run. Jasper kept watching us, and during another sparring session a week away from her year mark the asshole interrupted yet another one of my daydreams featuring Charlotte and her magical mouth.

"You love her," he stated.

"Yes," I answered him. It wasn't that he'd asked; he'd already figured it out and I just confirmed it for him.

"You can't keep her," was all he said to me before he dropped it.

He was full of shit. I _would_ keep her. We would just go with Charlotte's plan to run. It would most likely get us both killed, but that would happen if we stayed and at least with running we had a small chance of surviving for a little longer. I told her the day before she was supposed to be culled.

"Darlin?" I called to her as she was licking her way down my chest.

The fact that I interrupted her on her way to my dick immediately got her attention and she stopped what she was doing to look up at me. She reached up and laid her hand on my cheek and I turned my head into her touch.

"Tonight's the night," I said to her. "I need you to trust me."

"With my life Peter," she said and gave me a small smile.

It went straight to my gut because that's exactly what I was asking her to do; to put her life in my hands and do what I said immediately and without question. It was the only way that we stood a chance.

"Do exactly as I ask tonight," I told her, asked her hell even I didn't know which I was doing anymore.

She nodded and that seemed to end the discussion in her eyes. She got back to licking my chest and I let her because if we were dying tonight then I had to have as much of her as I could fit in the time we had left.

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**E/N: And that's my first year in a nutshell. You'll be getting my POV in the next chapter, but it won't be a recap of my first year so you'll still have to read it.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Not surprisingly, this was a really tough chapter to write. I hope that y'all enjoy it, even though it isn't one of my favorites.**

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The night started out like every other night had since I'd been here. We were taken, by Peter, in groups to train and then brought back out to spar with each other. I knew that Peter hadn't lied to me about today being a very different day for me than all the others, but it seemed to fall so easily into this new pattern of normal that it was easy to forget that I was supposed to die today.

The sparring, which had once been easy and instinctual for me, had only been getting harder and harder. I was slowing down and getting weaker, losing my advantage of being a new newborn. Peter didn't like to hear me say things like that, so I didn't. He also didn't like my argument that the two of us should just pack our bags and get the hell out of dodge but I wasn't about to give up that argument and though it hadn't spared me from today and the whole having to pretend that I didn't know that some of us were slated to be killed by the very people that had created us thing, by the time the sun set I at least had a glimmer of hope. Peter had finally accepted that Jasper, regardless of what their relationship was like, would not bend and allow me to live. And Peter had been forced to choose between the two of us.

I'm not saying that I didn't think he was happy about it, maybe worried was a better word, but he was Peter, and worried and him were like oil and water, they just didn't mix well. I knew we'd be alright once we were away from this place, but as much as he disliked being here and what that meant for us, this place was the known evil and it wasn't until early in the day, when I was kissing and licking my way down his body that he'd finally caved and agreed to go with the devil that we didn't know instead of sticking with the devil that we knew since it would only end with me a pile of ashes.

As the time came for the sparring to end, we were broken up into smaller more manageable groups so that we could be escorted to feed and then back to our part of the camp. This wasn't any different than any other day other than the fact that every other day, I'd been put into groups that were led away long before there were fewer than ten of us left sparring. It was cruel, knowing what I know now, that they insisted on us fighting up until the very end. It was cruel, but not unexpected.

"Alright ass clowns," Peter's voice carried over the now writhing battlefield, "fall in."

Those of us that could still walk of our own volition quickly gathered in front of him trying to ignore the pleas of the ones that couldn't get there on their own. His face and eyes were hard as he studied us. Our numbers had taken a hit tonight and it was only through the grace of God and Peter keeping an eye on me during the fight that I hadn't been one of the ones to fall. I stood there, holding a chunk of my arm in place and waited for him to tell us what to do next.

"You and you," he pointed at two of my fellow newborns that had fared better than the rest of us. "Start a fire. The rest of you, clean this shit up."

Jasper joined him and studied us as we tossed bits of fallen vampire towards the fires. One of our newborns was sifting through the remains that scattered the field for the lower portion of his arm and his actions got the attention of Jasper and Peter. They had a low conversation, which I watched from the corner of my eye, and then Peter went to the one armed soldier. It happened so quickly that at first I wasn't sure that I'd seen it. But then Peter tossed the soldier's head into the fire and I knew that I had. Peter joined Jasper once more and the two of them discussed the battle that we'd just won and what it meant as if nothing had just happened.

"Why?" I asked Peter later that day as we lay on the pallet in his tent.

"Why what?" he replied.

I propped my head up in my hand, my elbow resting on his chest and I began to trace the pattern of bites that he had there.

"Why did you kill him?" my voice was quiet as I asked.

"Because," Peter stated plainly, "he was already dead."

"He just needed his arm," I said shaking my head.

"Exactly," he said taking my hand and pressing a kiss to it. "He wouldn't have survived his next battle."

"You could have helped him," was my reply as I tried to see how this man that loved and cared so deeply for me could be so callous about the death of someone so like me.

"I did," Peter said. "I ended him quickly. It takes extra blood to re-attach a limb and you're the only newborn here that even gets a portion of the blood it would take."

"What if it _had_ been me," I asked.

"It never will be," he said and ended our conversation.

I had no idea how this thing was going to play out, no clue what Peter's plans were. I'd known him a year, and half the time I thought that his plans were simply him wanting things a certain way and flying by the seat of his pants to make it so. It didn't matter though; I hadn't lied to him when I told him that I trusted him with my life. I'd trusted him with it since I woke up here and he had done nothing to make me think that doing that was a mistake. He could be an asshole, a lot of times he was an asshole, but he was _my_ asshole and everything that he did and every move that he'd made since I woke up had been done with the same single minded flying by the seat of his pants determination to keep me safe and alive.

Do exactly as I ask. Do exactly as I ask. That phrase kept playing over and over in my head as the group I was sparring with began to thin out. The sun was firmly over the horizon and I hadn't missed the thin column of smoke that was lazily drifting heavenward in the distance. I was all that was left. Peter had just come to get my sparring partner and had led him away without sparing a glance in my direction. I didn't take it personal because I knew that it wasn't. He was doing his job right now, and it didn't matter that I didn't like it, it was what needed to be done and he'd saved me for last but that was Peter.

He hadn't asked anything of me, yet. But I knew that when my time came and he gave me instruction that I would do just as I'd promised and follow his directions perfectly. Doing that is what had kept me alive this long and I wasn't about to mess with something that had proven that it worked. I sat on the ground to wait on him to come back for me. I knew that he would come back. He always came back to me.

We'd argued once about how easy he thought it was for me to spend the days when I wasn't with him in the area with the other newborns. It wasn't easy; I hated when my days weren't spent wrapped around him but it was easy for me to walk into the area where the newborns were kept knowing that I wouldn't be there forever and that he would be back for me. It was easy for me to endure the hatred from the other newborns and their suggestive taunts because I knew that they were nothing and the only thing that had any power to really hurt me was Peter and he never would. Physically, on the training field, he would hand me my ass in a heartbeat but those physical hurts were to keep me safe and I knew that they hurt him much more than they did me. It was easy to heal a bite mark or reattach a limb; it was much more difficult to accept that you'd just injured your mate.

"No," Peter growled at me during our second training session, "you've got to pay better attention to your movements."

"I'm doing the best that I can," I said quietly so that the others wouldn't hear our conversation.

"Do better then," he said as he came at me again and I couldn't figure out if he was angry with me or this situation or if that was just how Peter was.

I was faster than him, but he had so much experience that he seemed to know exactly what move I would make before I made it. I easily side stepped him, throwing out my arm to deflect his movement exactly like I thought he'd told me to. My arm was quickly bent behind me and his teeth were in my shoulder. I wanted to cry out at the pain that this bite brought me. It wasn't like the other bite that he'd given me which had only brought me pleasure; this bite reminded me of the fires of hell. He quickly removed his teeth and let go of my arm to take a fighting stance before me once again. The angry mask that his face was set in as he stood before me disguised the pain that thought I saw in his eyes.

"Again," he said and rushed me once more.

This continued throughout the whole of our session and by the end of it, I had figured out the intricacies of the moves that he was teaching me and how to apply them to different situations. He had bitten me three times and I still wasn't sure if I'd seen pain in his eyes or only wished it there. He escorted our group to the feed barn, but denied me my portion of the human. The other newborns looked at me with everything from pity to gloating and I didn't know which the more appropriate expression was.

Peter had explained to me that we were mates, after he'd explained to me what we were. He'd told me all about the mating phenomenon, though his knowledge was, he admitted, pretty limited. Everything that I'd experienced tonight, from our training session, the feeding that I wasn't allowed to take a part in, and the taunts that he allowed the other newborns to hurl at me as they were dropped off in their section of the camp, went against everything that he said mates were. He only added to my confusion when he dropped me off at his tent with his jaw set in a hard line and no words and left.

I sat on the pallet that I'd made in his tent, confused, and still in pain from the bites that he'd given me, to wait for him to come back. I hadn't been awake long enough to have come to the realization that he would always come back to me so the pain that I felt at the thought that he might not overwhelmed me. Everything had overwhelmed me since I woke up. Every emotion swelled out of my control and though I'd been slightly impulsive before I went through hell, it was nothing compared to this. Peter had said it was just a part of being a newborn and that it would pass as I aged but right now those words weren't helping me come to terms with the fact that I was at the mercy of a mate that didn't seem to care about my well-being.

He did come back to me.

"Come with me," he said quietly to me as he held open the tent flap and I rose without a word to follow him.

He led me to the feed barn and into one of the stalls before presenting me with a human.

"Drink," he said as he offered it to me. He'd already exposed the blood for me and I quickly latched on to his bite mark to drink.

This feeding was so different from my last. There was no unrestrained lust from either of us as I took pull after pull of the cooling life-force from my victim. Peter held the body for me until I was done and then dropped it and moved to leave. I followed him back to his tent, though he'd said nothing about doing it, it was understood between us that I should. We stepped into the tent and his arms instantly went around me.

He held me close for not nearly long enough only breathing in my scent as his face pressed into the top of my head. He then moved his hands to the buttons of my shirt and opened it enough to slide it over my shoulders. His eyes locked on the bite marks that now littered my shoulders and the mask that he had been wearing at training fell and I could see the pain. He dropped his mouth to my shoulder and licked each of his bite marks closed. When he was done and the bites were sealed into dull aches instead of the pinpricks of burn that they'd been before, he wrapped me in his arms again and I understood that even though he hated the method he would do whatever he had to so that I would be safe. I'd wished then that there was more that I could do to keep him safe and I knew that the best way for me to do that was to let him know that I understood.

I leaned my head back, forcing him to look at me and I smiled at him before rising onto my tiptoes to press a kiss to his lips. One kiss led to another kiss which led to our clothes being gone and me being wrapped around him. I was quickly discovering that it was the best place to be in this world that I'd woken up into and the only place that just felt right. I'd loved the sex that I'd had with Peter before, but that night it had been different, with different instincts driving the both of us and I'd learned that it didn't always have to be feral and lust filled to bring either of us pleasure.

The sound of footsteps broke me from my memories and I turned my head in their direction. The hope that I'd been clinging so tightly to since the sun went down and Peter had asked me to just do as he said shattered. I rose to my feet and tried to hide the sob that was threatening to break free as Jasper strode towards me. I knew that he could feel everything that I was feeling and it didn't really matter now that he would know the truth so I didn't even try to hide what I was feeling.

"Come on," he barked at me with a wave for me to join him and I did.

"I can feel what you're feeling, you know," he said after a few steps in a much less harsh voice.

"I know," I quietly replied as I felt my heart break a little more at the thought of leaving Peter here with nothing but this uncaring monster for his friend.

"Cut it out," he barked back at me.

"I can't," I said to him. "It's not just me that's dying. I'm just the one that won't survive."

Jasper sighed and stopped walking, grabbing my arm and forcing me to look up at him. He studied my face for what felt like forever and I wondered if he was just going to end me now but he finally dropped his hands and started walking again. His pace was slower this time as if he'd picked up a great burden in the time that he was studying my face and I hoped that he had. I was glad that he could feel how much pain he was causing me and the only good thing about me having to leave Peter behind with him was knowing that the pain that Peter felt would haunt him every day for the rest of his existence. I wanted Jasper to pay for what he was doing to us. He didn't speak again until we were nearly to the fire and I almost didn't hear him because my eyes and thoughts were already on Peter.

"Run ahead and tell him good-bye," he whispered.

I ran, as fast as I could, straight to Peter and wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my face in his chest. I didn't want to tell him goodbye and I didn't want to leave him. I didn't know what to say in the short time that I knew we had left that would bring him any sort of peace.

"You didn't come," I said to him knowing that he could hear the unshed tears in my voice.

"He _insisted_ on bringing you," he said as his arms finally wound around me and I ignored the pissy tone of his voice because I knew it wasn't for me.

I could feel him inhaling my scent while his face was buried in my hair. He raised his head and moved his hands to my shoulders suddenly and he pushed me away slightly so that he could look at my face. I looked up at him and he winked at me before dropping his hands.

"Peter," I heard Jasper's voice slightly behind me, "you can head on back, and I'll take care of this."

"Run," was Peter's reply and because my reaction wasn't instantaneous, he screamed it again while smacking my ass. "Run, Charlotte!"

I heard the beginnings of a growl behind me and though it was nearly as hard as my last hug with Peter had been, I'd promised him and so I took off running as fast as I could. I wanted so badly to turn around and see what was happening, to make sure that Peter was alright, but I didn't. The sun was reaching its zenith so I was forced to be careful about where I was running.

I avoided running through open fields and towns, but I ran until the blue of the sky began to fade into the pinks and oranges that heralded the coming of night and when I saw the first star begin to twinkle in the sky, I finally stopped running and looked around me. I had no idea where I was. I found a fallen tree, and I walked over to it and sat down.

After sitting on the tree for three hours, I began to understand that my idea of a plan and Peter's idea of a plan were two completely different things. I ached to know if he was ok and where he was and what had happened after I took off. I had been thrown when Jasper had come to escort me to my death, because it was always Peter that came for me. He was the one that came for me because for us, that was how it had always been. I guess it was only appropriate that the man that I'd thought of as the devil for the past year would be the one to take me to die.

Peter had tried to convince me that he wasn't that bad, but I didn't think that I would ever think of Jasper of anything more than pure evil. Even his intended parting gift had been cruel to both me and Peter. No, Jasper was the devil here on earth; of that much I was certain.

"He's not that bad," Peter said to me as he brushed a stray hair from my face.

"You're right," I replied, earning a smile. The smile fell when I added, "he's worse."

"You just don't know him Darlin'," Peter said to me, but I just shook my head.

"I don't really want to," I told him meaning every word. "Peter, I watched him rip apart someone that was three days old today. All that boy did was panic when someone moved too close too fast."

"I know," Peter said with a sigh. "That's just how it is."

Peter had tried many more times to convince me that Jasper was less than the devil that I thought of him as, but each time he did, I had some new horror that I'd witnessed to contradict him. That was what I had left my mate with when I had run and the thought was terrifying me.

Approaching footsteps startled me to my feet. They weren't the sound of running steps but of someone walking through the underbrush. I raised my head slightly and sniffed the air and my face broke out into a huge grin at the scent that reached me.

"Peter," I gasped just as he came into view.

His eyes found mine and his smile could barely be contained by his face as he came to me. All of the terror of my run and having to leave him and not knowing what had happened to him welled up inside of me and when he opened his arms to embrace me, I braced my legs and shoved his chest as hard as I could, knocking him back on his ass.

"I was worried sick!" I yelled at him and my voice broke.

"Darlin' I," he started as he stood back up but I just shook my head.

"No," I replied, "I heard him growling and then you said run and I had no idea what the hell was going on."

I was so relieved that he was here and I knew that my outburst was not really showing him that but I couldn't stop myself.

"Dar-," I didn't let him get any further because he had wrapped his arms around me and he was here and we weren't there and I didn't want to hear about any of it right now. I pressed my lips to his before he could finish his word. None of the rest of it really mattered because we had made it and I had all the time in the world to hear about how.

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**E/N: Thank you so much to all of you that are reading, and extra thanks go to those of you that are reviewing. Your reviews light the proverbial fire under my ass that I need to keep writing. A special thanks goes out to my sister, Sunshine, for being so good on the love and support front. I'm not real sure I could get through writing the hard parts of this story without her.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** ** A huge thanks for all of the reviews, and for those of you that are just reading thanks to you as well! On with the show!**

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We stayed where Charlotte had stopped long enough for a happy little reunion that involved very little clothes and a lot of her screaming my name. She seemed so much lighter away from the camp, and it made sense that she would now that the threat of death was so much vaguer. I knew that we needed to head north and so after I had shown my fucking hot mate how happy I was that we had escaped, we started in that direction.

My girl, while beautiful to me, was in no shape to go traipsing through towns to hunt dressed in the clothes and dirt from the camp, and I looked only slightly more presentable than she did. I knew that we would need to hunt soon, so I considered it lucky when one night we came across a run-down old farm house. The older couple inside had just sat down to their dinner and they looked about as happy about it as I would have.

"Peter?" she squeaked out to me.

"Yeah?"

"I have no idea what I'm doing," she said.

"Alright Darlin'," I said to Charlotte as she stood next to me just outside the couple's kitchen window. I turned her to face me and rubbed up and down her arms, "Don't worry about a thing, just go in there and get you some dinner."

She nodded at me and went to the back door of the house and knocked. I laughed quietly to myself and walked around the side of the house to join her as the door creaked open. She had already latched onto the old woman that had answered the door and the old man was just calling out his wife's name and asking who it was. I paused long enough to get a good look at Charlotte's ass then gave it a squeeze as I walked around her on my way to the man. He was still at the table when I stepped into the room with a smile and a brief wave. He dribbled gravy down his shirt and I just wrinkled up my nose as I went to stand next to him.

"Peter," Charlotte said as she poked her head around the door frame after a few minutes, wiping the corner of her mouth, "are you-oh!"

"Did you have enough?" I asked her as her eyes stayed locked on the man next to me.

"Yes," she said, pausing in her stare down of my dinner long enough to look up at me.

"Alright then," I said to her with a grin, "guess it's my turn."

I kept my eyes on Charlotte as I drank from the man. Well, my eyes were on her tits but that's still her so it counts. When the man was drained, I let him fall to the floor at my feet and stalked towards my girl. Her eyes lit up and a hint of a smile crossed her lips as she backed into the wall.

"What are you doing, Peter?" she asked, and her voice was already husky.

"Getting dessert," I said simply as I reached her.

"Dessert? But I thought you were gonna," her words trailed off as I tore off her shirt and licked up her neck.

"Oh," I growled and shredded her pants, "I am."

I ran my hands down Charlotte's sides, grazing the sides of her breast and earning a sexy as fuck gasp from her. I continued my path down to her ass, giving it a firm squeeze as I took a nipple into my mouth, sucking slightly before lightly biting it and letting it go. Her hands were in my hair when I hitched her thighs onto my shoulders.

Her arousal was sweet, and oh so potent and I buried my face in it as she groaned. I ran my tongue along her folds lapping up the moisture there before swirling my tongue around her clit. I growled lowly as her delectable flavor coated my tongue and I licked her again. I ate my girl like a fat kid eats cake, with gusto. I slipped in a finger, then two, and just when her thighs started quivering from my thrusts and tongue, I crooked those fingers and rocked her world. Charlotte melted down that wall when I was done and I watched her with a smug smile on my face.

"Bathtime," I said to her and her smile got a little bit brighter and her eyes got a little bit bigger.

"A real one?" she asked.

"Yup," I said with a chuckle when I really should have been getting out of my woman's way.

I didn't mind getting pushed aside for a bath because she did a girly little dance that made her tits do amazing things before she took off to find the bathroom in this house. I heard her moan, in a completely different way than I make her moan, and then running water and I chuckled and began walking through the house.

I easily found the bedroom, and under the bed, a small suitcase. I figured that we'd be able to get more use out of their stuff than the dead people downstairs. I rifled through their dressers and packed the suitcase with some changes of clothes. I heard Charlotte start to sing in the tub, lightly splashing as she washed herself and cringed a little. My woman was not a singer.

I couldn't resist and went to the bathroom and stood in the doorway, watching her lather herself up. I started unbuttoning my shirt with the intention of joining her and the sound of the fabric hitting the floor had her eyes on me quickly.

"Hell no," she said to me in a tone I had never heard her use before.

I just looked at her and she started shaking her head.

"No. This is my first real bath in a year and you are _not_ getting in here and cutting it short," she said and pointed to the toilet. "You can take a seat and watch and keep me company but you ain't getting in."

I walked over and sat on the toilet to watch her. It was torture but I was _not_ pouting. Not really. She was right there all nekkid and wet, nearly in touching distance as she leaned back in the water to wash her hair. I could practically taste her wet nipples as she arched her back and their hardened peaks went heavenward. They _wanted_ my mouth on them and my response was a very manly whimper. They were there, right in front of me, wet and nekkid. And Charlotte was _right there _nekkid, and wet and yet, I wasn't allowed to touch or taste any of her. It really just didn't seem very fair. She eased back up and settled into the tub, all nekkid and wet and closed her eyes.

"This feels so," she started but left off with a hum.

"So what, Darlin'?" I asked her tits.

"Normal," she answered as she opened her eyes and smiled over at me.

I really wanted to be pressed against her wet, nekkid body, but the smile that she was giving me right now was worth every bit of sexual frustration that I was feeling over not being able to. She lounged in the tub for a bit while I sat on the toilet and kept an eye on things. I laughed at her reaction when she let the water out and saw the black ring that she'd left in the tub. She calmed down after I sent her to the bedroom and told her to make herself all girly.

We'd both bathed, put on decent clothes, and packed up a few changes of clothes before we left the house in a blaze and continued our way north. I'd taken the liberty of finding the people's nest egg and liberating it because it wasn't like they would need it anymore. We went up through Mississippi and into the mountains of Tennessee.

We were on the outskirts of Roanoke, Virginia when the moment I'd been dreading since we left the camp happened. I scented another of our kind. I stopped walking and touched Charlotte's arm causing her to come to a stop beside me. He stepped out of the forest and onto the road about twenty yards in front of us and we stood there for a moment studying each other. I had dropped into a crouch, prepared to fight, at the first hint of his scent but there was nothing for us to fear. I just knew it, so I straightened my stance even though all of my training and all of my years of experience told me it was a mistake to do so. He had never crouched and he broke out into a grin when I stood.

"Fine night for a stroll," he said casually and started walking towards us, "wouldn't you say?"

I looked at Charlotte, and she looked at me and I just shook my head a little. This wasn't like where we'd come from and though I knew we didn't have anything to fear, all my years of training in that camp hadn't given me any reason to believe that the assurance bouncing around in my head could be believed.

"We're just passin' through," I told him and tried to get Char more behind me, "We ain't looking for trouble."

"You won't find any trouble here my friend," he replied and extended his hand. "My name is Garrett."

I gave Charlotte a look that I hoped told her to stay put and stepped forward to greet him. My woman, being my woman, stayed firmly at my side.

"I'm Peter," I said as I took his hand, "This here is Charlotte."

"It's a pleasure to meet the both of you," he said with a smile for Charlotte that made me growl. "You look like you've been traveling for a while. Would you like to come to my home and freshen up a bit?"

I glanced back at Charlotte and saw her hesitancy because this just wasn't normal behavior and though I knew she'd love to have another bath, I was glad of the hesitancy. I wondered what his angle was, because I'd been around long enough to know that if there was anything that vampires had, it was an angle. But then there was that thing in my head saying that this was ok, and that there would be no danger in going with him. I gave him a brief nod and he began walking with us, though I stayed between him and Charlotte.

"Where are you from?" he asked us, and when I didn't answer he continued, "I'm from Virginia, but I travel a great deal."

"Texas," I finally answered him, and he stopped walking to turn and look at us.

"Texas? That's," he said with a small wave of his hand, "impossible."

"Impossible my ass," Charlotte said, putting a fisted hand on her hip. "I was born and raised in Texas. This is my first time being anywhere else."

Garrett's eyes got big at my woman's little outburst and I put a calming hand on her shoulder and growled quietly at him for staring at her like that.

"My apologies," Garrett said to me, holding his hands up and taking his eyes off of her, "I meant no offense to your mate, only with the wars there, it seems an impossibility for me to see you here."

With that, we all started walking again. Garrett took us to a modest home not far from where he'd found us and ushered us inside. I made sure to keep Charlotte at my side while he showed us around. After I reluctantly let her leave my side to get settled in the bathroom, I followed him into his living room. He waved me to a chair and I took a seat between him and the door instead of the chair he'd offered me.

"You truly are from the South then?" he asked quietly and I figured it was because he didn't want to antagonize Charlotte again.

"Yup," I replied with a nod of my head as I settled back into the chair.

"I didn't mean to upset her, I've just never heard of anyone surviving," he explained to me. "Is it true that the coven leaders bathe in the blood of innocents?"

"Huh?" was all I could come up with to the jackass question that he whispered.

"I have heard tales of a vampire that they call Major and his second," he kept talking, and I was just slightly amused that he'd actually heard of me. "Do you know of them? Are they as bad as the stories? Have you seen them?"

"I've seen them," I replied with a nod.

"Is it true," he whispered and I was beginning to wonder if he'd missed his true calling as a gossiping old biddy, "that one look from them would bring a man to his knees."

"You tell me," I said narrowing my eyes and staring hard at him while rolling up the sleeves of my shirt.

I could hear Charlotte getting out of the tub and I wanted this shit to stop before she got out here. I figured scaring the shit out of him would be the quickest way to make sure that would happen. His eyes grazed my forearms and widened then I could see the fucker connecting the dots.

"Guess not then," I said to his shocked expression. "Though, the Major's not here and I _know_ he can drop a man with a look."

"But," he asked and I could see a million questions running through his mind but he wasn't an idiot and he could tell I was getting sick of answering him, "you have a mate. I heard that was not permitted."

"It's not," I told him, "We left."

And then my woman walked into the room, looking like a dream in a dress the same shade of green that her eyes had been before I bit her and I just had to smile at her as Garrett and I both stood up. I saw the nervousness in her eyes and crossed to her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

"You look beautiful, Darlin'," I said against her hair then dropped my eyes to look at her, "You feel better?"

She nodded at me, and gave me a smile and I escorted her to the chair that I'd just vacated. She took a seat and I perched on the arm of the chair closest to where Garrett was sitting.

"Do you plan on staying in Virginia, Peter?" he asked me.

"Depends," I said to him, resting a hand on Charlotte's shoulder, "Who's the coven leader here?"

"There are only a handful of nomads here," he said shaking his head, "Things in the north are quite different than you're accustomed to."

I just scoffed at him and started rubbing circles on my woman's shoulder with my thumb. I felt her hand cover mine and I glanced down at her and gave her a wink before looking back over at Garrett. Fucker looked sad, and I was guessing that he was regretting showing us where he lived in case I was here doing some scouting for my former bosses.

"Garrett," my girl broke the uncomfortable silence that I'd created, "do you have a mate?"

His eyes met mine and I gave him a brief nod before he turned back to her. I didn't really want him talking to her, but she obviously wanted in on the conversation and I'd put up with it to make her happy. Charlotte didn't miss our exchange.

"No, my dear," he said with a smile, "I have not been so fortunate as to find my mate yet."

"What was that?" my girl asked looking between me and Garrett.

"It's ok," Garrett went to reassure _my_ woman and I growled slightly, "mated males can be very protective if they sense a threat. There was no offense, and I assure you, I am no threat to either of you."

"I haven't decided that yet," I scoffed again at him.

"Peter," Charlotte said quietly and I knew that she was still hesitant about this whole situation but being the good southern woman that she was, she had an aversion to rudeness that I didn't.

"Well," I said as I stood up, "I guess the two of us should be on our way now."

"I would extend my hospitality for the duration of your stay in the area," Garrett said. "There are some lovely sights that you really should see before you move on. I believe that there is a new play at the theater as well."

And that is when that little voice, or hint, or intuition, or whatever you wanted to call it screamed at me. We were safe here. It was different here. I sat back down on the arm of the chair. The fucking theater _would_ be what triggered this. I looked back down at Charlotte, and then over to Garrett again.

"Tell me what you know about mates," I challenged him and took up rubbing circles on Charlotte's shoulder again.

We sat there and listened to him tell us everything about the whole mating phenomenon, asking questions when we needed to. And as he talked, it became more and more obvious that things were indeed, very different here. My desire to take Charlotte and run was beginning to ease, but only slightly and I tried to rein it in to just a few growls and dirty looks thrown in Garrett's direction because my woman was fascinated with learning everything that he had to tell us.

He shared his story with us, and didn't ask us any questions about ours. That earned him a couple of brownie points in my book, because I already knew what a curious fucker he was and I knew that he hadn't asked just to spare Charlotte. In fact, he didn't ask us many questions at all, just opened himself and his home up to us and made us feel welcomed even though I was still giving him the stink eye from time to time.

The next evening, Charlotte was sitting in my lap and we were listening to the stories of his Revolutionary War days. He was catching us up on what had been happening while we had been living in that hell hole in Texas. I'd been too busy working for Maria to care, and Charlotte had lived in the middle of nowhere before I'd bitten her. We were clueless on current events. I noticed that her hand kept flitting up to brush her throat and I wondered if she was getting thirsty again. I'd practically overfed her in the camp, just wanting to give her every advantage that I could over the other newborns and since we'd been free from there, I'd not been as proactive about her thirst.

"Darlin'?" I asked, placing a finger on her chin and gently turning her eyes to me. "Are you wantin' some dinner?"

"I'm alright," she said, cutting her eyes towards Garrett.

I wasn't sure what that was all about, but there was no way in hell my girl was gonna be sitting here thirsty. I put her on her feet and then stood up with her.

"Garrett," I said to him, "We'll be back before morning. We need to feed."

"Allow me to show you the best spots?" he asked as he stood.

I looked down at Charlotte and she looked hesitant again which just made me want to get my inner growly on though I knew it was probably because she was still trying to figure out how to hunt for herself instead. I gave him a brief nod, took Charlotte's hand, and followed him out of the house.

Hunting here was very different than what I was used to. There was no random snatching of people and dragging them into alleys, we truly had to hunt. It was a change, but it wasn't all bad. Garrett was pretty subtle with his instruction while he showed us the best places to hunt and then he left us to it. I helped Charlotte first, and she was getting better but still needed or wanted my help. I wasn't complaining because it meant that I got to watch her, and my woman was hot as fuck when she was hunting and feeding. After she was fed, we went in search of food for me and she watched me with her bright red eyes darkening which I took to mean she must like watching me just as much as I liked watching her.

When we were both sporting bright red eyes, we headed back to Garrett's house. I had my arm draped over my woman's shoulders and she had her arm around my waist and we were just strolling down the tree lined street. It struck me then what she'd felt in that old farmhouse bathtub. This was just so normal. And while it didn't feel normal for me anymore, it gave me hope that one day it would.

We settled into a nice routine at Garrett's and I wasn't growling at him all the time anymore. I still wouldn't leave Charlotte alone with him, but he seemed to understand and respect that. He was easy to get along with because he didn't push me too much to tell him about what had happened down in Texas. He was a nosy fucker though and any time it was just the two of us, he was always wanting me to clarify rumors for him about the kind of life it was. He'd usually lay off after I'd growled at him though.

We'd been in Roanoke for about a month, when I really truly realized that we wouldn't ever have to fight again. I still wasn't used to it, but I knew that it was true and accepted it. Charlotte and I had talked about it, and she seemed so relieved that it was easier for me to believe it now. She even let me get in the tub with her once just to show me how happy she was with how everything was going.

Garrett had settled us into his extra bedroom with instructions to make ourselves at home so we did. Usually when we were making ourselves at home, I'd hear him slip out the door to give us some privacy. And after that one day when Charlotte outdid herself sucking me off, he couldn't look her in the eye for a full 24 hours.

He'd just left the house to hunt, when I looked over at Charlotte and smirked because the dress she was wearing was pulled taught over the curve of her left breast and I really think it was trying to escape to my mouth. I picked her up and carried her to the room and she started undoing buttons. I pulled her dress over her head and tossed my shirt into a chair in the corner of the room.

I ghosted my mouth down her neck as I kicked off my shoes and pants and once I was as nekkid as her, I sucked her nipple into my mouth. She moaned and I backed her into the bed, forcing her to sit on the edge. I loomed over her and began to stroke her folds with my fingers though my cock was aching to be there.

"God Darlin'," I groaned, "you're so wet."

She lay back onto the bed and I continued to stroke my fingers in and out of her, sucking first one nipple then the other. I could feel her beginning to flutter around me and I lightly brushed her clit with my thumb.

"Mmmm, Peter," she moaned as she writhed under my hand.

My cock was throbbing. I needed to be inside of her _now._ I removed my hand and positioned myself at her entrance and slowly began to push into her and almost blew my load. She was still writhing beneath me and moaning in that sex voice of her and her tits were right there still glistening with my venom on them.

"Oh Jesus Char," I groaned as I fully sheathed myself in her and began pumping into her, "you're so fucking hot and tight and oh shit. Will you marry me?"

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**E/N: Don't kill me. Just leave your frustration in review format. Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thank you to everyone out there that's reading and supporting this story. *passes out tissues* This is a rough chapter.**

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To say that Peter's proposal came as a shock would be an understatement. One minute I'm writhing on the bed with him taking me to my favorite place and then he goes and asks me to marry him. I wasn't completely sure if he even realized that he'd asked me because he certainly didn't stop to wait for an answer for which I was grateful. After we were done, and he'd collapsed beside me on the bed, I rolled to my side and lay a hand on his cheek and smiled.

"You didn't answer me," he said.

"No," I replied, "I didn't."

"Well," he asked, "you wanna?"

I wasn't sure what to say to him. I loved him with all of my being and I just couldn't imagine that a piece of paper would make that love grow more. You got married to have a family and I wasn't ready for that yet. We had forever and I had no idea what vampire children were like. We hadn't even _discussed_ children yet. We had just escaped from hell and hadn't even stopped running yet, really. I wanted time for us to spend with each other, figuring out who we were away from the things that had tainted our beginnings. I closed my eyes and began lightly shaking my head, and I was terrified of hurting him. I was already his; I only hoped that he remembered that.

He pulled away from me and I heard him get dressed and leave the room before I let the quiet sobs come. I curled up into a ball on the bed and cried my tearless cries for hours. As the burning in my eyes receded, I got out of the bed and pulled my clothes back on. He hadn't left the house and I took that as a sign that maybe he would be willing to talk with me. I found him sitting in the living room staring out of the front window with his mask from the camp firmly in place. I walked over and lay a hand on his shoulder and his hand instantly covered mine.

"Take a walk with me," I asked him and he answered by turning to press a kiss on my hand before standing.

"Alright," he said with a half-hearted smile and led me to the door.

We walked through the neighborhood quietly for a while, just listening to the night sounds around us.

"I'm sorry," I said to him, causing him to stop and look at me.

"For what," he asked gruffly.

"For what happened in there Peter," I answered then sighed a little. "I didn't want to hurt you, Sugar."

He didn't say anything, just started back to walking, and I walked with him a few moments before speaking again.

"I love you Peter," I said, "with everything that I have. I'm completely yours."

"Except on paper," he said.

"It's not about a piece of paper," I whispered to him. "Paper changes nothing about who we are Peter. I already know that I'm yours. I don't need a paper to tell me that."

"So you meant it," he said to me and I could hear the sadness in his voice, "You won't marry me?"

I took his hand and stopped walking to look up at him.

"Not right now," I said. "We just got away. I'm not saying no forever, just for right now. We still have so much to learn about each other and I'm only going to marry you once. I love you so much, but I don't feel ready to be a married woman."

I knew that he didn't understand where I was coming from with this, and maybe it was just a part of being a woman that I would have all of these thoughts and feelings and not be able to run into marriage head on. There were so many important things that the two of us hadn't talked about. There was so much that we still didn't know about ourselves or each other. I knew that I would never leave him, and that I would always be his, but I only felt that we would be cheating ourselves of something if we rushed into getting married too quickly. I hated hurting him.

"I love you Char," he said to me and brushed his lips over mine before starting to walk again. "That's not gonna change just because you won't marry me."

We had a very weird few nights after that conversation. Nights where I would touch him only to have him pull away slightly then come back minutes later to lavish me with affection. I'd see him staring out of the windows of the house wearing his mask from the camp but he'd drop it as soon as he'd notice me watching him. Garrett stayed gone, and I was thankful that Peter and I were able to get through this without having someone watching. It didn't take us long, and we were mostly back to where we had been before. I was sitting on the couch reading; my feet propped in Peter's lap while he absently rubbed them and stared out of a window on the day Garrett came back.

Peter stood when Garrett entered the living room, placing my feet onto the sofa as he did and he took up a casual stance between me and Garrett while they talked with each other. It was good to see Peter have such a normal relationship with someone else. It was a good sign that everything would work out ok for us. They decided to go out for a quick hunt together, though neither of them really needed it. I think it had more to do with testosterone and male bonding that it had to do with a need for blood. I stayed behind to read and enjoy some time alone.

I thought a bath without Peter sitting on the toilet pouting and watching my every move might be nice, and I was just getting dressed again when I heard them come back. Their boisterous laughter filled the whole house, and I couldn't help but smile as I went to join them.

"Char, Darlin'," Peter started as he walked over and gave me a quick kiss, "You ain't gonna believe this!"

I looked between the two of them, with their matching grins and the excitement in their eyes.

"Believe what," I asked. "Are y'all gonna make me guess?"

"They have asked for volunteers," Garrett said with so much excitement that it was easy to imagine him as a much younger version of himself.

"Yeah," Peter said nodding, "And as soon as they open back up, we've got to go back down."

"I'm still lost guys," I told them.

"The army baby," Peter said and picked me up to give me a little twirl. "We joined the U.S. Army!"

He put me back on my feet and the two of them looked at me with expectations written plainly all over their faces. I had no idea what to say to them so I just stood there.

"Charlotte," Garrett asked.

"Char," Peter said, "say something."

"Y'all are the biggest jackasses I have ever met," I said before turning on my heel and going up to the bedroom.

"Char," I could hear Peter's footsteps behind me as he called out for me but I didn't stop walking until I was in the bedroom.

When he appeared in the doorway, I just shook my head at him. He crossed the room to me and sat on the bed next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"Don't worry Darlin'," he said seriously, "We'll be safe."

I just stared at him. He was serious. The two of them had taken their male bonding time and joined the damn army. They really were the biggest jackasses I had ever met. Garrett appeared in the doorway and I looked over at him as he studied me.

"We're vampires Charlotte," Garrett said as if I didn't already realize that, "We won't be hurt."

"You two are idiots Garrett," I said and stood up to start pacing the room.

"We just want to help our country Char," Peter said.

I started laughing quietly and rubbing my forehead while I paced. These two were killing me here.

"And showing off your sparkly ass in a war zone," I said, "that will help?"

The two of them looked at each other and it was more than obvious that neither of them had considered this in the execution of their stupid plan.

"Um," they both said at the same time and I swear I could see the gears smoking in both of their heads as they tried to come up with a response.

"No army, boys," I said to them.

"But!" they both cried at the same time and I gave each of them a look.

"No," I pointed first at Garrett then turned to Peter to point "Army."

They sighed heavily, Peter stood and crossed over to Garrett and slapped him on the back.

"Come on Garrett," he said with another sigh, "Let's go figure out how to get out of this."

Garrett nodded and they both left looking like I had just killed their puppy. They figured out a way to get out of it, but it involved us all moving on. I was sad to part ways with Garrett but I knew that we would see him again someday. He had helped the both of us so much with adjusting to life away from the camp and I would forever be grateful to him for taking us under his wing like he had.

Peter and I traveled throughout New England, and a certain sadness began to settle over him from time to time. We would talk, and the sadness would lift slightly when he spoke of Jasper only to crash back down on him with anger and betrayal. I knew that he missed Jasper and the camaraderie that the two of them had shared. They were brothers by venom, and had become close during their time together under Maria. I was afraid that Peter was starting to become bored with the calm life that we'd found since leaving. I would catch him staring at me from time to time with sadness etched across his face, and I wondered what he was thinking of.

"Peter," I finally asked him one night as he watched me with those sad eyes, "what's bothering you?"

He shook his head and turned his gaze from mine, but the sadness didn't leave him. He stayed wrapped in it and it was killing me to see him like this. It was still with him a few nights later, and I went over to him. I stood behind him as he sat gazing into the fire and wrapped my arms around his shoulders. I pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"I hate seeing you like this," I said and he turned his head towards me and pressed a gentle kiss on my shoulder.

I moved slightly, intending to give him the space that he seemed to need to work through these current thoughts of sadness that were plaguing him but his hand quickly went to mine and he pulled me into his lap and wrapped his arms around me. He clung to me, pressing a kiss into my hair. I laid my hand on his cheek and he turned his face into it and pressed a kiss into my palm as he closed his eyes. He didn't speak or move and we just sat there like that for a while. I was worried about him and hoped that my touch was easing some of his torment.

"I'm sorry, Darlin'," he finally said as his sad eyes opened and met mine.

"No," I said, giving him a sad smile as I shook my head.

"I haven't told you everything yet," he said dropping his head. "You don't understand it all."

"It doesn't matter," I said to him, "none of it matters. Just you."

He was quiet for a long while and I stayed in his lap watching as he tried to come to terms with whatever it was that was bothering him so much. He wouldn't look at me when he began to speak.

"Vampires are frozen in time," he said and I just nodded. "I was so selfish."

"No Peter," I said and stroked his cheek. "You've given me everything."

"When was your last menstrual cycle," he asked, his voice going slightly hard.

"I don't remember," I said slightly embarrassed that this was what we were talking about. "Maybe a couple of months before you changed me. They come and go as they please. Will it bother you?"

"No," he said sadly, "it won't bother me. It won't happen again."

"Of course it will," I said to him with a smile. I assumed that the shock of my change and the perpetual violence had stopped my flow for so long, and I had never been regular with it anyway. "I'm just not very regular with it."

"No Darlin'," he said and finally looked at me, "It's gone forever. It will never come back. Your body won't change like that anymore."

"But," I started but my voice hitched as the full meaning of his words hit me.

"I'm sorry," he said again and began to run his fingers through my hair. "We will never have children."

I buried my face in his chest and let the tearless sobs take over. I knew that my pain was hurting him but I couldn't stop it. He held me, and joined me in my crying and we both mourned for the children that we would never have. It was a painful time for the both of us, and I continued to hurt him each time I felt the sting of my loss. It wasn't easy to resign myself to the fact that I would never be a mother, or carry his child, but I tried very hard to accept it so that I would stop hurting him.

We helped each other get through it, and began to talk about the kind of life that we would like to have together. We talked more and more about Jasper as the time passed. Peter missed him terribly, but he still carried so much anger at Jasper for not sparing me. They weren't easy conversations for us to have because I still thought of Jasper as the devil but deep down I knew that he was just a victim of the camp like everyone else that was locked in that hell on earth.

Years passed, and Peter and I continued traveling together carefully avoiding going too close to the South. We were mostly happy. We got to know each other, and Peter began to find himself again. Spending so much time in the camp had done a lot of damage to him, but he was well on his way to being the man that he'd been before he'd been changed. The lightness that he felt at this was obvious but there was always that sense of longing about him. Though he felt Jasper had betrayed him, he still considered him his brother and missed him terribly.

"We should just go get him," I said one day as we traveled through Colorado.

"Yeah," Peter scoffed, "Easy as pie. Just walk back in there and get him."

"Don't be a jackass," I replied. "I'm not saying just stroll right back into Maria's camp."

"Oh," Peter said and stopped walking to look at me, "and how would you suggest it go down?"

"I don't know," I said with a shrug. "He's got to hunt sometime. Maybe find him then and talk to him, see what he wants."

Peter didn't reply, and nothing more was said on it for a few days.

"I don't want you anywhere near that place," he said out of nowhere. "Never again. I can't risk that."

"Then you go," I said to him.

Again, Peter said nothing for a few days and I was regretting my words to him. He didn't want me near the camp, and I didn't want him near the camp but I knew that he would be the better choice of the two of us to go. Jasper wouldn't hesitate to kill me on sight, I was certain, but he would at least hear Peter out. The whole idea of going back for Jasper was frightening to me. I had so much to lose and I wasn't sure if Jasper would be worth it in the end.

"It's been five years Char," Peter said, "do you think he's still pissed with me?"

"Only one way to find out Sug," I told him.

Several more days passed and it wasn't lost on me that we were drifting further and further south. Peter didn't want to talk about it when I would try mentioning going back for Jasper, but I could tell that a part of him had already accepted that it was going to happen.

"I'm gonna do it," he finally said one night.

I just rolled my eyes and laughed.

"What," he asked me, "you don't think it's a good idea?"

"No Sug," I said to him as I wrapped my arms around his waist, "I think it's a fine idea. I was just beginning to wonder when you'd finally realize it."

He talked to me, hashing out his plans, and though they seemed a little too go with the flow for me to feel confident that nothing would happen to him I still agreed that he had the right idea. He assured me that he would be safe and that he would come back, with or without Jasper. When the time approached for him to leave, I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his chest to inhale his scent. He ran his hands up and down my back and promised me again that he would come back.

And my mate left me sitting on a fallen log in the middle of a cow pasture in Oklahoma to go get his brother.

Two weeks passed and I didn't move. I couldn't. I could only worry about Peter and hope that nothing bad happened to him. I knew that I needed to hunt, but I didn't want to leave this spot. I wouldn't chance him coming back while I was gone. My throat burned, but I still didn't move. My chest ached from needing him, but I refused to move until I heard his footsteps.

At first I thought that they were just a figment of my imagination brought on by a longing that had paralyzed me. When the two forms appeared over the horizon, I stood and waited. It wasn't until his scent hit me that I realized that he was back. I went to him, quickly and oblivious to the other vampire with him.

"Thank God," I said as I buried myself in his chest once more. "I was so worried."

"I told you I'd come back Darlin'," he said as he wrapped himself around me.

We stood there for a few minutes, just allowing the comfort of having each other wash over us. It was Peter who pulled back first, and he looked down at me and smiled.

"I brought company," he said, gesturing towards Jasper.

"Hello Jasper," I said stiffly as I studied the shell of the man who'd tried to kill me five years earlier.

He didn't speak and Peter wrapped his arm around my shoulder seemingly unaware of the tension that was now hanging around us all. I needed to hunt, and Peter wanted to start showing Jasper how different our lives had become so the two of them came along with me. It was an uneventful trip, aside from the fact that even though Jasper's eyes were now bright red he still wasn't speaking.

We decided to move further north once more, and as we traveled Peter would attempt to draw Jasper into conversation. It never worked, and though I thought it should have, it didn't seem to discourage Peter at all.

"He just needs some time," he would whisper to me whenever I would try to mention it.

Our time together was much more limited now that Jasper was with us, and I wouldn't have minded so much if our presence had made any difference to him. It didn't seem too. Peter said that it did. I wouldn't allow Peter to leave me alone with Jasper and though he thought I was overreacting, all I had to do was remind him that Jasper had _felt_ what was between us and still been willing to kill me. Time continued to pass, and Jasper began to relax into the peace of this existence, but he still felt like a dark cloud hanging over us. His presence seemed to be what Peter had needed to fully appreciate the changes from the camp and so I said nothing about the way that Jasper's presence affected me. It wasn't a constant and Peter and I still were able to have each other and love each other so I wasn't going to complain.

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**E/N: Thank you again for all of the support, it's what keeps me writing. Please leave me a review and let me know what you think. I should have the anon reviews enabled so that everyone can do that.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: This chapter is shorter than the others have been, but I hope you'll still enjoy it.**

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We tried to adjust to having Jasper with us, but his gift made it difficult. Peter and I would be laughing and talking while Jasper went out to hunt and when he'd return there was always tension in the air around us. Maybe blaming it all on Jasper's gift would be undermining how uncomfortable I was sharing my time and space with him. Most likely it was a combination of both.

Peter and Jasper fell into an easiness that could only be explained by how close they'd been in the camp. We frequently hunted together, and at times were able to enjoy it. They enjoyed having each other and it was nice to see Peter smiling and laughing so freely. Jasper became Peter's great accomplice and they were constantly getting into some sort of trouble with me. Frequently, they were the reason we could only stay in one place for a short period of time.

"Shit! Char," Peter ran into the hotel room we were staying in with Jasper close on his heels. "Pack woman!"

"What," I asked, standing from the bed and watching as the two of them began shoving things into our bags.

"We need to leave," Jasper said to me as if I couldn't gather that much on my own.

"What the hell did y'all do this time," I asked and began filling a bag, a false sense of urgency swelling in me. "Cut that shit out Jasper. I'm hurrying."

"I'll take that," Jasper said taking the bag from my hand and picking up another one. "See y'all in the car."

"Peter," I asked as he finished latching a suitcase and grabbed my hand, pulling me towards the door, "are you going to tell me what happened?"

"In the car Darlin'," he said, "I'll tell you everything in the car."

He pulled me behind him as he ran out of the hotel's back entrance. The sound of a door being broken down echoed through the hall behind us.

"Oh my God," I said as Peter pushed me into the car Jasper had waiting for us. "You jackasses tried to rob a bank, didn't you?"

"Oh, we should try that next Jasper," Peter said, both of them grinning until they saw my face.

"Or not," was Jasper's reply.

"So why are we racing out of town again," I had to ask, even though I knew the answer didn't really matter.

"Um," they both said while having a silent argument about who was going to tell me.

"We got busted running corn liquor," Peter confessed and I had a feeling that Jasper had used his gift so that he wouldn't have to be the one to tell me about it.

"Corn Liquor," I asked mystified, "Y'all are morons. Haven't y'all heard of _prohibition_?"

"That's kinda the point Char," Jasper said and I just glared at him.

"We made $500 Darlin'," Peter said and I began to rub my forehead.

"Can I ever leave you two unsupervised," I asked.

We drove 1000 miles before settling down again in another hotel in a different city. In a way, it was nice to have a change of scenery, but I was beginning to feel slightly unsettled by the constant movement that we always seemed to be in. I began to long for a place that Peter and I could make ours and call home. We lasted two months this time, a short amount of time even for us. Peter and Jasper just couldn't seem to resist finding trouble.

"Darlin," Peter said as he eased into the hotel room alone. "Now don't get mad."

"Where's Jasper," I asked.

"He's bringing 'round the car," Peter replied, "Don't get mad, alright?"

"What happened," I asked as I began to pack our things.

"I'll tell you in the car," Peter said as he hefted the luggage. "We'll go out the back."

I followed behind him, thankful that at least this time there weren't cops busting down the hotel room door behind us. Peter got all of the luggage into the car while I slid in. As soon as he was in the car, Jasper gunned the engine and we were once more fleeing a city.

"Y'all get busted running corn liquor again," I asked glancing between the men on either side of me.

"Not exactly," Jasper said.

"Then what," I asked Peter.

"Well, we took your advice," he said with a hopeful smile.

"My advice," I asked, shaking my head. "If y'all had taken _my_ advice, I'd be sitting in a bathtub full of hot water right now."

"You did mention robbing a bank Char," Jasper pointed out to me, hitching his thumb towards the back seat of the car.

I turned around in my seat and looked into the back of the car. There were bags of money piled into the foot space. I turned back around slowly and sat in my seat staring out of the windshield as the countryside flew past us.

"Darlin," Peter said beginning to rub my neck, "are you ok?"

"She's furious," Jasper said and I could feel his gift attempting to calm me.

"Shit," Peter said and Jasper just nodded at him.

"Shut up," I said to both of them and they immediately complied.

We rode in silence for the rest of the day, and Jasper wisely stopped attempting to calm me and let me calm on my own. When we found the obviously abandoned home on the outskirts of a small town and decided to stop, I finally spoke to them.

"It will be my birthday soon," I said after getting out and shutting the car door behind me, "I would really like to spend it here."

I walked into the house, leaving them to bring in the luggage. They followed me, assuring me that they would settle down and that we wouldn't have to move on again until after my birthday had passed. I think that my silence during their last get-away spoke volumes to both of them and they were extremely nice to me during the time leading up to my birthday. I often received peace offerings from them, though I'd forgiven them their stupidity the day after we arrived.

It was my birthday, the fourth since Peter had gone back for Jasper. The stifling emotions that seemed to be who he was weren't nearly as bad as when he'd first joined us but they were still there. Peter had taken Jasper with him into the nearby town earlier, to hunt and pick up something for my birthday he said, but I think it was to give me a break from Jasper's gift. I busied myself tidying the abandoned house that we had been staying in for the past few months. I built up the fire and took a seat in front of it with a book that Jasper had brought me a few weeks ago as another peace offering. I felt the two of them before they ever entered the house. Jasper's overwhelming depression wrapping me in a cocoon of darkness long before Peter's arms found their way around me.

"Happy Birthday Charlotte," Jasper said and held out a wrapped package to me.

"Thank you Jasper," I said and took it from him.

"Open it!" Peter immediately chimed in.

I removed the paper from the box and opened it. I folded back the layers of tissue paper to reveal a very modern dress. It was in the shade of green that I loved to wear because it reminded Peter of my eyes when I was human. I pulled the dress from the box and held it up and it was perfect. I couldn't have picked out a better one for myself.

"Your tits are gonna look amazing in that," Peter said but my eyes were on Jasper.

"Thank you Jasper," I said to him, offering him a smile. "It's perfect."

"You're welcome," he replied, "I know that you like that color."

"I do," I nodded. "It's beautiful."

"I'm going to just," Jasper said as he pointed towards the room that he'd claimed for his own, "go read."

He left the room, and I folded the dress neatly back into its box. Peter pressed a kiss to the side of my head.

"I have something for you," he said with a grin as he pressed another box into my hands, "but open this first."

I opened the box to reveal all of the undergarments that I would need to wear the beautiful dress from Jasper. Peter had even thought to get shoes and a handbag to go with it. I looked up at him and smiled.

"Thank you Sug," I said to him. "I'll wear it tomorrow."

"Good," he quickly replied as he kissed down my neck, "because tonight I don't want you wearing anything."

"Peter," I half protested, "Jasper is in the next room and he just hunted."

"I don't care," he replied and began unbuttoning my dress.

I couldn't resist the feel of Peter's lips on my skin, though we'd always tried to be mindful of Jasper's abilities and state of mind when we were intimate. His depression tonight was ignored as Peter's fingers grazed my nipple, I couldn't find it in me to care what Jasper felt or heard. My hands moved to the buttons of Peter's clothes and soon we stood there naked, wrapped around each other.

Peter lowered me to the rug in front of the fire and settled between my legs. His hands and lips roamed freely over my body and mine did the same to him. I sucked lightly on his neck, and he slipped a finger inside of me. I raised my hips into his hand and his lips met mine. His tongue brushed my lower lip and I opened to him moaning into his mouth. Our tongues danced with each other as he brushed his thumb over my clit.

"Peter," I groaned at him, pleading for more.

He withdrew his hand and I could feel him stroke himself. He ran his cock along my slit before slowly pushing into me.

"God Char," he moaned at me as he began to thrust.

It was a slow coupling, allowing both of us to enjoy the sensations created by the other. Our mouths were locked together in moans of mutual ecstasy. The tension Peter's strokes were creating built within me and I began to flutter around him. He increased his pace and the sound of flesh meeting flesh joined with the gasps and grunts of pleasure. His hand once again found my clit and I cried out his name as my walls began to clamp down around him. His thrusts became erratic, deeper, and each plunge into me drove me further into the oblivion of my orgasm. He gave one final thrust with my name on his lips and shuttered as he collapsed on top of me.

I ran my hands up and down his back as he recovered and soon, he rolled to his side and pulled me into him. We lay there, grinning like fools at each other. My hands drew designs on his chest, and his ran up and down my side.

"Happy Birthday," he said to me.

"Thank you," I replied, "I would have been thirty-two today."

We stayed in front of the fire for several more hours, taking the time to enjoy the comfort we found in each other's body. It was a good birthday for me. We didn't stay in the house much longer after my birthday passed, fearing the attention that our presence might bring since it was supposed to be abandoned. It was Jasper that called me out on what I was thinking as we loaded our luggage into the car.

Jasper looked at me as he put a bag into the trunk and tilted his head to the side in question. Peter was in the abandoned house, re-covering the furniture with the dust cloths that we'd removed when we got here.

"Longing, desire, love, uncertainty, sadness," Jasper said with a nod towards the house, "You should tell him."

"I will," I replied and put down the last of the bags for him to load.

I thought about what Jasper said as we drove away from the house. I did need to talk with Peter, but it was so difficult for us to talk with Jasper's emotions tainting us. They were so much lighter than they'd been when he joined us but the effects of the negative emotions would show themselves frequently still. It was always worse after Jasper hunted, Peter had pointed that out to me the day the two of them returned from a hunt and I inexplicably began sobbing over a hairbrush. It helped if you were expecting them. We knew that if we had sex while Jasper was in the house that his guilt over our last day in the camp would crash into us and leave us feeling like teenagers who had been caught in flagrante by their priest if we weren't prepared for it. I leaned into Peter's side as he drove and absently ran my hand along his thigh.

"When we stop," I asked him, "will you hunt with me?"

"Of course, Darlin'," he replied and leaned around me to waggle his eyebrows at Jasper.

We drove for several hours before we stopped and got a hotel room. After checking in, we dropped the bags off in the room and Peter wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"We're off to hunt," he said to Jasper, "Don't get jizz on the bed. That's my job."

"We'll be back soon Jasper," I said to him as we walked out of the room. "Ignore Peter."

Once outside of the hotel, I turned to Peter as we walked and smiled a small smile. He answered my smile with a wink.

"What's on your mind Darlin'," he asked me.

"I want a house," I told him. "Nothing fancy, just someplace that's ours."

"Like Garrett," he asked and I nodded.

"Darlin'," he asked me, "what's brought this on? I thought you were happy."

"I am Sug," I said to him with a smile. "Very happy. It's just, we move around so much."

"Um-hmm," he answered.

"Wouldn't it be nice," I questioned him, "to have stuff that's ours?"

"We do," he said pulling me to sit on a park bench with him.

"We have clothes," I sighed out. "I just thought it would be nice for us to make a home together."

"It would be nice," he agreed. "What kind of house?"

"Something small," I settled into his side with a smile. "Big enough for us. What do you think?"

"A nice view," he answered, "We had a nice view where I grew up."

"That sounds nice," I hummed. "What else?"

"A big ass bed," he laughed and gave me a squeeze, "and a big tub."

We laughed together, getting more and more ridiculous as we talked about the kind of house that we might like to get.

"Where would you like this house," he asked me still chuckling over some of the silly things that we'd mentioned.

"I would love for it to be in Texas," I said knowing that it was just a dream and I felt Peter stiffen next to me, "but that's just a dream Peter. I know that we can't move to Texas."

"Why don't you start looking in to places tomorrow," he asked me.

"I'll go to the library as soon as it opens in the morning," I said smiling at him. "We can afford a house, right?"

"Darlin'," he chuckled, "I'm pretty sure we can and if we can't, me and Japer can just knock over another bank."

"You wouldn't dare," I accused him and he leaned in and brushed his lips over mine.

"I will do anything for you," he whispered against my lips.

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**E/N: Thank you to those of you that take the time to let me know what you think via reviews. They mean a lot and help me stay motivated. And much love to my AMAZING husband, who gives me a smack on the ass whenever I get a chapter right.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Thanks to everyone that's reading and reviewing! Hope y'all enjoy this chapter!**

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My girl wanted a house. I couldn't stop grinning as we walked back to the hotel room. Charlotte wanted the two of us to have a house. Together. If I had taken the time to come up with a "Get Char to marry me" plan, this definitely would have been at _least_ step three or four. And it wasn't even my idea. I couldn't help but grope her ass a little as we walked into the hotel.

"Darlin," I said turning towards her, "Why don't you head on up? I'm gonna go grab a newspaper."

"Alright Peter," she said with a smile and I just had to kiss her.

I thought that I was pretty respectful of us being in public and all since neither of us ended up nekkid, but the guy behind the check in desk started up with a coughing fit just as my hand slid down to cup Char's ass. Jealous, judgmental asshole. I gave her ass a little pinch as I broke the kiss and she jumped and laughed before heading towards the stairs. I watched her ass until she was out of sight then I went over to the desk clerk and cleared my throat. He, of course, looked terrified.

"Excuse me," I said very politely, even going so far as to smile at the man that had interrupted me copping a good feel of my woman, "would you happen to know where I might find a newspaper?"

He pointed and muttered, but I managed to get the general idea of where he was sending me. I walked back out of the hotel and quickly crossed the street. Down the block, about halfway was a nickel and dime shop and in front of it, a newspaper stand. I stepped up to the older man working at the stand and nodded at him.

"Evenin'," I said to him, "I'd like a paper please sir."

"Which one," he asked me like I knew there would be more than one. "We have three. There's the local weekly, the fancy one from New York, and the Chicago Tribune evening edition."

Fuck me. I didn't have a clue which of those would be what I was looking for. I shifted my weight and scratched the back of my neck, debating on asking the old man for help with this. I didn't want to buy all three and show up in the room looking like a paper boy. I wanted one paper so that I could be slick as I set my plan into motion.

"Which one has the most real estate listings," I finally asked and was rewarded with a copy of the Chicago Tribune.

"That'll be five cents," the man said.

"Woo wee," I whistled as I handed over a nickel, "they're not cheap, are they?"

"Nope," the man chuckled at me, "You have a nice evening."

"You too," I replied and saluted him with the paper as I turned, "Thank you."

I walked back to the hotel and went straight to our room. Charlotte was, of course, in the tub. Since Jasper was here, I knew she wouldn't let me get in there with her so I took a seat on the edge of the bed and unfolded the paper.

"What the hell are you doin'," Jasper asked me.

"I," I said firmly snapping open the paper, "am keeping up with current events."

"Then why am I picking up mischief," he asked mostly quiet. "Or have you already done something that's made it to the paper. Char will kick your ass."

"Here," I said as I tossed him the sports section, "keep yourself busy and stay out of my business."

"I will tell on you Peter," he said to me cutting his eyes to the bathroom door.

"Shh," I hissed at him and dropped my voice so that Char wouldn't be able to hear me. "I'm shopping for her, but you can't tell her."

"This what y'all talked about," he asked me quietly.

"What do you know about that," I whispered to Jasper as my eyes narrowing at him.

She wouldn't have talked to him about this first. Would she? Hell no. She wouldn't. She barely talked to him at all and even then it was more for my benefit than anything else. I knew that she wouldn't have gone to him first.

"Her emotions," he said softly as he smacked me in the back of the head with the sports section. "When we were leaving that shit pile her emotions were weird. I told her to tell you."

"Oh," was my genius response to him.

"Jackass," he came back at me with.

"Shit head," I said.

"Dick sucker"

"Motherfucker"

"Asshole"

"Douche canoe"

"GUYS," Charlotte yelled from the bathroom and Jasper and I looked at each other with widened eyes and answered her in sync.

"Sorry Char," we chimed out and had to bite back our laughter.

She didn't and it was a beautiful sound, my girl's laugh. Even Jasper was able to appreciate the sound of it. We had to join in. There was just something about her laugh that neither one of us seemed to be able to resist. It was probably because we went so long without laughing that finally being free to indulge in it was so nice. But I preferred to think that Char's laugh was magic and was helping to heal my brother.

The laughter died down and Jasper opened the sports section. To our horror, Charlotte started singing in the tub. Jasper and I looked at each other and both cringed because unlike her laughter, my girl's singing voice would set dogs to howling. I loved her though, and it made her happy so I did my best to tune it out and I opened up the paper to the real estate listings.

"Hey Jasper," I interrupted his reading, "Toss me a pen."

He did, and I began circling the properties that I saw that I thought would be perfect. I knew that I had told Char to go to the library and research where she thought would be a place that she would like to live, but I was fucking excited. I figured, I could just let her do her thing at the library tomorrow and Jasper and I could head in to Chicago and check out a few properties. It would be a nice surprise for Char to be able to hand her keys to our own place when we all met back at the hotel.

We dropped Char off at the library as soon as it opened and Jasper and I headed the car towards Chicago. I was driving and I just kept ignoring his questions about what we were doing and where we were going. He finally resorted to using his gift on me to make me tell him everything, the cheating bastard. He seemed to think this might not be a very good idea, but he's an idiot half the time when it comes to women so I just carried on to the real estate office.

We met with a nice young man who was very helpful about the properties that I'd found in the paper. He was more than willing to show the two of us a few of them. We met him at a very nice building downtown. Personally, I thought it would be a bit fancy for what Char and I talked about but Jasper said we should look at it since we were already here. We listened to the man go on and on about all of the perks about the building as we went up to the apartment.

"It's a very discrete building sir," he said as his eyes cut between me and Jasper. "All of the staff have been well trained."

"Umhmm," I said as I walked through the place.

"Peter," Jasper was whispering at me, "Char would hate this place."

"I know Jasper," I said back so that the man couldn't hear me, "but I couldn't tell him no. Did you see how excited he was to show us this place."

"Gentlemen," the realtor said, "if you'll look through here I think you'll like this. It's revolutionary. A bathtub for two. Now you two would enjoy that, right?"

"The fuck," I asked Jasper who just started snickering.

"Oh honey," Jasper crooned from inside the bathroom that I was _not_ setting foot in, "you have to see this."

"We're done here," I told the man very seriously while Jasper's laughs echoed through the empty apartment.

The man looked very confused between me and the bathroom.

"I am buying a home for my _wife_," I lied to the man who just cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable.

"Yes," he replied, "you mentioned something more…modest?"

"That's right," I said to him. Char grew up on a dirt farm, just like I did and we just weren't fancy people. Modest seemed like a good adjective. "We're just simple folks."

"Perhaps if we went over what you were looking for again," he asked.

"We want something simple," I started talking, "nothing too fancy. Something that reminds us of home."

"And where is it that you grew up," he asked.

"A German community in Texas," I said with pride.

"I think I know what you're looking for," the man said as he started practically bouncing around.

The man gave us an address and asked us to meet him there. He explained that he would need to stop by his office for keys, and we agreed that we would. Jasper and I got back into the car and I immediately punched him in the arm.

"What the hell was that for," Jasper asked as I pulled out into traffic.

"That was for that shit you pulled back there," I grumbled as I drove. "You're not even my type."

We rode in silence as the neighborhoods got sketchier, and poorer looking. Jasper's eyes brightened a little, but I think he just saw an all you can eat buffet and not our potential future home. He did have a good point though; it would be awful convenient to live in a place where dinner was practically delivery. I pulled the car in front of the address that the realtor had given us and looked up at the building as I got out of the car.

"What the fuck is that smell," Jasper asked looking like he'd just had his face shoved in horseshit.

"Boiled cabbage," I said to him with a smile. It didn't smell great, but it reminded me of my mother. "It was a staple where I grew up."

The realtor stepped out of his car and approached us looking pretty jumpy. I don't know if it was because of us, or the area that we were in. This place seemed great. The only thing that was lacking was a view, and we hadn't seen what the apartment had to offer yet.

"It's on the top floor," the man said holding out the keys to me. "I've had urgent business at the office so if you'll just bring the key back when you're done."

I nodded and he turned tail and ran back to his car. I just rolled my eyes and started towards the building. Jasper and I went up the twenty flights of stairs to the top floor and down the hall to the corner unit.

"It smells like piss in here," Jasper said as I put the key in the door.

"That can be fixed," I said to him as we walked in. "Don't be so stuck up. You know Char can work miracles with a dump."

It was true, she could. She'd had that old abandoned house feeling like a home in no time, and I knew that she'd be able to do that for this place too. It had so much potential. And it had a view. Not a great view, but if you stood in one spot and sort of craned your neck and leaned out the window a bit, you could kinda see downtown.

"I think it's perfect," I said to Jasper, "Let's check out the rest of the place."

He followed behind me, and finally decided to shut up with his bitching and moaning. The rooms weren't very big, but there were two bedrooms and the bathroom had a tub. It needed to be cleaned, but I didn't think that was a good reason to turn down what would be a perfectly good surprise for my woman.

"We need furniture," I said as I headed to the door with Jasper behind me.

"You don't want to think about this Peter," he asked and I just shook my head.

"You've got the cash in the car, right," I questioned him as we went down the stairs.

"Yup," he replied. "How much you need for this dump?"

"Two grand," I told him as I glared and got into the car.

Jasper fiddled around in the trunk for a minute then slid into the passenger's seat with two of Char's handbags in his lap. I just raised my eyebrows at him.

"Money for the apartment," he said raising one purse then raised the other one, "Money for the furniture."

Our good friend the realtor was surprised when I handed him the two grand and bought the apartment. I don't know why, the place was perfect for us. It was exactly the things that we'd talked about except for being in Texas. Jasper and I immediately went to a furniture store and bought everything that we would need for our new place. He agreed to stay at the place and clean it up a little and accept delivery of the furniture. I knew that he was just still trying to get on Char's good side and would do just about anything to prove to her that he didn't want to kill her anymore. I left him there, and got all of our things from the hotel loaded up before driving back over to the library where my beautiful girl would be waiting for me. I pulled the car to the curb and got out to open the door for her like the gentleman that I am. Plus, I could look down her dress while she was getting situated. I got back in the car and gave her a quick kiss.

"Did you figure anything out," I asked her with a broad smile as I pulled into traffic.

"I think so," she said, "There are a couple of places out west that seem nice."

"I have a surprise for you," I told her and reached over to lay my hand on her thigh.

"A good one," she asked as she scooted closer to me and I put my arm around her, "or the kind where all our shit is in the trunk and Jasper's stealing us a getaway car?"

"I'm hurt Darlin'," I told her with a chuckle, "Don't worry, it's a good one."

"Then I'm going to need to tell you thank you," she asked and her hand began rubbing my thigh in the best way.

I just nodded because damn, my girl was now rubbing my cock through my pants and I was able to see right down her dress and the moment was really too perfect for me to ruin with words.

"I think I know how to do it," she said in her sex voice and I was sporting an insta-boner.

Her hands went to the fly of my trousers and she unbuttoned them and had Tex in her hand before I could respond to her. I was not stopping her. She started stroking me and my foot pressed on the gas a little harder. God her hand felt good sliding up and down my cock and I was so lost in that sensation that I missed her leaning over. It wasn't until her lips wrapped around my tip that it even registered that she'd moved. All I could do was groan as my girl began sucking my dick.

My Darlin' had a gift. Her tongue danced over the sensitive head of my cock, then massaged it as she swallowed around me. The pace that she was bobbing around Tex was perfect and the way she rolled my balls in her hand quickly had them tightening. I swerved into oncoming traffic briefly when I thrust up into her mouth, but I quickly corrected the car's course. She gave my nuts a gentle little tug and I blew my load down her throat. I heard screeching tires but fuck 'em. I just got my dick sucked and they could handle their own drama.

"Peter," Char said as she sat back up, "open your eyes. We're in the wrong lane."

"Shit," I said as soon as I opened my eyes and got us back in the right lane and at the right speed.

"I take it you liked that," she laughed.

"It was _the best thing ever invented_," I told her seriously.

"Put your dick away Peter," she laughed as she settled into my side, "I'll do it again soon."

"Well," I said as I tucked Tex back into my trousers and got them buttoned back up, "I will never tell you no to that. Fucking hell. Road head."

"So," she asked, "what's the surprise?"

"This," I said as I handed her the key to our new home.

"Are we staying at one of the fancy hotels downtown for the night," she asked turning the key over in her hand.

"Not exactly," I told her and pulled to a stop in front of our new home with a big ass grin on my face.

I helped Char out of the car, and escorted her up all the stairs to our new home. She hadn't said a word yet, and I was about to bust to tell her but I really wanted to see her eyes light up when she figured it out on her own. We stopped in front of the door and I motioned for her to use the key. She got the door open, and I noticed that Jasper had done a decent job with the cleaning because the smell of piss didn't smack you in the face as soon as you walked in. He'd left me a note on the door and I unfolded the paper and read silently, _This is all on you. I will be back later. –J _I would have to thank him later for the cleaning and the privacy. Char walked around the living room area, her eyes wide as she took in all of the furniture and the room itself.

"Come look at this," I told my woman, taking her arm and leading her to the bathroom, "It's got a nice tub."

Char looked from me to the tub, raised an eyebrow and nodded. I pulled her down to the bedroom that would be ours and opened the door for her. I wasn't completely certain if she'd like the bedding that I'd picked out even though it looked really nice with the lighting. She still hadn't spoken; I couldn't help but grin a little bigger. It was nice being able to surprise her like this and I knew that once she had time to come to terms with the fact that we were now homeowners that the look of shock she was wearing would fade.

"Darlin'," I asked her as she walked over to the windows, "Whatcha think?"

"Peter," she said quietly to me.

"Hmm," I said as I came up behind her and wrapped my arms around her shoulders in a hug.

"Will the people that live here be home soon," she asked and I just grinned bigger and laid a kiss on the top of her head. "It really smells horrible and I don't know if dinner is worth all of this."

"The people that live here are already home Char," I answered her and she turned in my arms.

"What," she asked and she slightly tilted her head like she was listening for something.

"I said that the people that live here are already home," I told her again. My girl was so excited I had to repeat myself. This was going better than I imagined it would.

"You have got to be kidding me," she said.

"Nope," I said with a smile, shaking my head. "Surprise, Darlin'! Ain't it perfect?"

"You bought this place," she asked and I nodded. "And the furniture?"

"Yes m'am, the furniture too," I proudly told her. "I bought it all today and Jasper accepted delivery of it while I got our stuff from the hotel and picked you up."

"But Peter," she said looking a little confused, "All of this furniture looks worn out. I'm scared to sit on anything for fear it will break."

"I knew that you'd want something homey," I told her, "So I found a used furniture shop because the stuff all looks well loved."

"I, I have no idea what to say," she said.

"Well," I replied with a chuckle, "your thank you in the car was more than enough."

"No Peter," she said and looked around our room once more shaking her head.

"Huh," I asked her.

"This place is just so," her voice trailed off and she pulled out of my arms to walk back to the living room. "Are there any cleaning supplies? I can't take this smell for another second."

I pointed in the direction of the kitchen, which is where I assumed Jasper had put the damn things and watched my woman disappear and reappear with a bucket of sudsy water radiating the scent of cleaning solution and a couple of rags. She thrust one of the rags at me.

"I am staying here tonight," she said, "because I am just too damn overwhelmed to think about finding somewhere else. But I can't take the smell and I'm not cleaning alone."

She pointed at the bucket then at me and smacked my ass as she passed me.

"Get to work Peter," she said, "I'm going to inspect the bathroom."

I was beginning to think that my idea wasn't going quite as I had planned it. I followed her to the bathroom.

"Char," I said, "Baby, I thought you wanted us to have a home together."

"Peter," she sighed and wrapped her arms around my waist, "I do want that but this place is a dump, not a home. It's worse than that abandoned shit pile we just left."

"I thought you liked that place," I told her because I really did think that. "You seemed so happy there."

"I was," she said smiling up at me and starting to laugh a little, "but not because it was a dump. Because we were able to stay there for a while. That is what I liked about it."

"Oh," it wasn't the smartest reply but it was all I could come up with. "So you really don't like this place or the furniture?"

"No," she said and leaned up to give me a kiss, "I love it because it's a gift from you. I want to keep it. I'm just not gonna live here."

She was a fucking slave driver over the next few days, making me and Jasper both clean everything a thousand damn times. But she was cleaning too, and when Char would scrub shit, her tits did the most amazing things. My favorite was watching her on her knees scrubbing the floor. She yelled at me to get back to work a few times while she was doing that, interrupting that beautiful back and forth her ass was doing and stopping her tits from looking like they were going to fall out of her top. I still sneaked peeks, I just made sure to look like I was working when she'd look up.

We got the place to where it didn't smell like piss anymore, and Char took some cash and started replacing the furniture with stuff that still looked homey but was new. She wasn't happy about this place, because sometimes the smells from the building would rise up and take up residence in our place. I really wanted to be able to give her a house, and I finally broke down and asked her about what she'd found out at the library. She told me about a couple of places in Wyoming that seemed promising, and one place in Idaho, but I could tell that she wasn't as happy as she should be.

We were talking about the area in Idaho that she thought we should check out when I heard that little whisper of something in my head start up. Texas. I was pretty sure that we shouldn't be going back towards Texas, but that niggling in my brain just wouldn't stop. I knew that Char really would prefer for our home to be there, and honestly, I would too. Texas was home, and it always would be no matter where we lived. Texas. For days that inclination that Texas was the answer pestered the hell out of me. There was no way that I was taking Char anywhere near Texas again until I was certain that she wouldn't be in danger there. I just wasn't sure yet exactly how I was going to make this happen.

It took me a week to get a plan together. I got the names of the towns in Wyoming and Idaho from Char and convinced her that it would be best if Jasper or I went and checked them out first. Jasper of course said that he was staying out of it. She made me promise not to buy her anymore surprise houses, and I reluctantly agreed. I think we both knew that if I saw the perfect place that I wouldn't hesitate to buy it though. I planned on taking the car and leaving at first light and so after Char and I had talked, I went for a quick hunt with Jasper so that the rest of my night could be devoted to giving her a proper goodbye.

"Jasper," I said to him as we walked out of the alley we'd just fed in, "If anything happens to her while I'm gone I won't hesitate to kill you."

"Drama queen," he said, rolling his eyes at me and I pushed him into a wall.

"No," I replied seriously, "That woman is my whole world. She still doesn't trust you not to kill her and I hate leaving her like that. You will take care of her."

"I know," he said and nodded, "You know that I will die before I let anything happen to her. I owe her."

"You'd better," I said to him, finally letting him go.

"She's why we're not still there," he said quietly as we walked and I felt a wave of gratitude wash over me. "I owe her my life."

We walked in silence back to the shit hole, as Jasper liked to affectionately call our home. He seemed to actually like it as long as it didn't smell too bad. I spent the rest of the night buried in Char. I was going to miss her, and I knew that she would miss me too. I didn't like leaving her with Jasper because I knew how uncomfortable she was around him, but after my conversation with him I knew that if I wasn't there to protect her that he was the next best thing. When the sun came up, I packed a bag, got in the car and started driving towards Texas.

It took me three days, three long ass days and nights of nothing but driving. All I could think about was how Char had sucked my dick when I was driving in to Chicago. I played that on a never ending loop as I drove down to Texas. I only stopped to relieve the ache in my cock twice, which I thought was pretty impressive given the thoughts that were running through my mind. I had no idea where in Texas I should be going, and so once I crossed the state line, I just started heading to the area where I'd lived as a human, the hill country.

Texas always had a beauty that was all its own, and I was appreciating it as I drove. When I came to a sign in the middle of nowhere that said "Abilene" I just knew that I had to head in that direction. I drove into the small town of Abilene and the first building I saw was marked as a real estate office. Seemed like things were falling into place so I parked in front of the office and went inside. The folks were pretty nice, and very helpful considering it was right at closing time. I talked with one of the gentlemen at length about what I was looking for. He said that they didn't really have much that would meet our needs, but told me if I was willing to go with a "fixer upper" that he thought he had something. This seemed like not such a great idea after the last fixer upper that I'd bought, but I got directions to the property anyway. The man gave me a paper that had all of the details of the property typed out on it, and told me that the house wasn't locked up to have a look around.

I thanked him, and got back into my car. The words fixer upper and the promise that I'd made to Char were nagging me, but I drove out to the property anyway because that pinging in my head was louder. It wasn't a bad drive, I actually enjoyed it. The directions made the place real easy to find, and I pulled down the dirt driveway when I got there. It was a long drive, which I thought was real nice. But oh fuck my life, the house was in real bad shape.

I pulled the car to a stop and got out. The house looked like it had never seen a paintbrush, and it was missing pieces of the tin that made up the roof. I sighed and headed towards the porch. As I walked, I took a look around, and the property was gorgeous. I knew that Char would love a house here; I just wasn't sure about this particular house. I walked through the interior, and it looked to be in much better shape than the outside. It needed paint and a scrub, but it didn't smell like boiled cabbage, piss or any of the other fragrances that made the apartment that I'd bought so undesirable. I walked back outside after looking through the entire inside and sat on the front steps to watch the sun set. Once it was dark, I ran through the property, checking it for the scent of my kind. As in town, I found nothing to indicate that there were any vampires near this area. I guess the wars were further south, but that this was too close for comfort for people who hadn't lived through that hell.

I got back into the car, and took one last look at the house in my rear view mirror. The sight of that house, standing tall in its isolation against the dark Texas night set that shit in my brain off and I knew that regardless of the shape of the house, or the promises that I'd made to Charlotte that I just had to buy this place. This was our home. This was the place that both of us daydreamed about and I wasn't about to let it slip through my fingers. I stopped the car right there, and went back to sit on the steps of the house. I would leave once the sun came up and go back to the office and buy this place. I had to.

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**E/N: I've already had a request for Garrett's story...if you have any other requests for outtakes, just leave them in a review. My first priority is finishing this story though. I look forward to hearing from you! **


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hope y'all enjoy it. Make sure to check the E/N.**

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It was a difficult thing to accept that Peter had actually left me here with Jasper. I understood his reasoning behind wanting to explore the area alone before exposing me to any potential threats, and wanting to give any potential allies time to prepare themselves for the appearance of Jasper. But understanding is not liking, and I didn't like this situation at all. The fear that Jasper had worked so hard to instill in me during my first year was still present, and I felt that it always would be. I retreated to the bedroom as soon as Peter left, and stood at the window watching until I couldn't see the car in the distance anymore. I knew he was there, in the doorway, watching me. I refused to give in to the fear that was swelling in me knowing that he was blocking the doorway. I felt his false calm wash through me like an unwelcome tidal wave and I growled quietly.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Jasper said to me but I refused to turn from the window or acknowledge that he'd spoken. "I'm leaving."

I turned at that, it was what I had wanted to hear from him for years now. His emotions were so much more than I could handle on my own without Peter there acting as a buffer between the two of us. I simply nodded at him, knowing that he would know exactly how much relief I felt as soon as he spoke them and the guilt that came with that relief. He meant so much more to Peter than he did to me, and though I didn't want Jasper here with us, it was for purely selfish reasons. Peter wanted, maybe even needed Jasper to be a part of our lives and that was why whenever he suggested asking Jasper to leave I told him no.

"I will," he said as he pointed out the window and waved his hand slightly, "stay out there and keep an eye on you. Holler if you need anything."

And with that he was gone from my sight. I wanted to believe that he was, in fact, just outside of my line of sight. For Peter's sake, I didn't want him to leave us. No matter how uncomfortable I was with him, I didn't want to be the reason that Peter had to feel his loss. I didn't see him again until just before Peter returned home, and I didn't complain about his reappearance. My time alone hadn't been as bad as when Peter had gone back for Jasper because I knew that he wouldn't be in such a dangerous position. I knew that my time without Peter had been much more enjoyable without Jasper's heavy emotions pressing in on me than it would have been had he stayed. I was sitting on the couch reading when Jasper walked through the front door and went straight to the bathroom.

"He'll be here in about ten minutes," he called in answer to my curiosity at his sudden return.

It was twelve minutes later, when Peter walked through the front door. His smile was broad and he quickly was in front of me, wrapping me in his arms. It was heaven after being separated from him.

"I missed you," I said to him with a smile after deeply inhaling the scent that was home to me.

"I missed you too Darlin'," he said taking my seat on the couch and settling me on his lap. "You two didn't kill each other?"

I shook my head, thinking that Peter's wording could have been better given exactly what had caused this deep seated distrust and dislike that I had for Jasper.

"Uncalled for asshole," Jasper said as he joined us in the living room, sitting in a chair across from us. "You know how she feels about me."

Peter just laughed at Jasper and gave me a squeeze. An uncomfortable silence fell over us, and we all recognized that Jasper's presence had caused it. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence with the three of us.

"Well," Peter said with a smile. It was always him that broke these silences. "Who wants to hear about my trip?"

"Was it a nice area," I asked as I leaned out a bit to study Peter's face.

"It was a very nice area that I saw," he said and I didn't miss the silent exchange that happened between him and Jasper or his wording.

"What," I questioned.

"He's feeling guilty," Jasper said never taking his eyes from Peter.

"Peter, what happened," I asked hesitantly.

"I didn't go to Wyoming," Peter answered and when I moved from his arms he began rubbing the back of his neck in a way that usually meant we needed to move.

"So Idaho was a good place then," I asked amidst the silent argument still raging between the men, the confusion of their intensity swirled around me.

"I didn't go to Idaho either," Peter said and whatever nonverbal emotion that he'd sent to Jasper at that statement caused Jasper to begin growling.

"What have you done," Jasper growled at him.

"I went to Texas," Peter said quietly still glaring at Jasper.

I froze. We were going to have to go back. All of these years were nothing more than borrowed time and though a part of me had always carried that fear around I had always hoped that it would be an unfounded fear. I started shaking my head and the fear roaring in my ears was deafening. I knew that Peter and Jasper would survive returning, but I was just as sure that I wouldn't. I could see Peter's lips moving, his stare darting between me and Jasper and growing angrier and more fearful as Jasper approached me. Jasper reached out and laid his hand on mine and instantly wave after wave of comfort, security, love, and peace washed through me.

"…scaring her to death," I finally heard Peter growling.

"She's calmer now Peter," Jasper said and Peter's eyes turned to me.

"I'm sorry Char," Peter said, "It's not what you're thinking. It's safe. I was safe."

"I'm ok," I said to Peter but I was unable to hide the sting of betrayal his announcement had caused me. When Jasper went to pull back his false emotions, I shook my head and flipped my hand over, clinging to his. "Not yet Jasper. I can't yet."

"Ok," Jasper said and returned the emotions to me that he'd began pulling back.

"Baby," Peter started, "I had to go. It was good."

I nodded at him, still clinging to Jasper's hand and not wanting to think about what that might mean.

"Small town, out in west Texas," Peter continued, "Abilene. It was nice. No scents at all. Not too far from Fort Worth. Also, no scents. I checked baby."

"Peter," Jasper said, "No scents at all or no fresh scents?"

"None," Peter said. "It's a ways from the border with Mexico, too far for her to be straying, but too close for anyone else to chance."

"You're sure," Jasper questioned, "How far away from San Antonio? You know she'll go that far north now."

"A full day," Peter answered and Jasper nodded.

I still couldn't wrap my head around this situation. My mate, the center of my world had gone back towards hell without a word of warning to me. He'd left me with the devil and now the devil was the only thing keeping me together right now. The terror of what could have happened to Peter was too great for me to get past so quickly. I knew that one or both of them wanted and needed me to say something but I couldn't. Not yet anyway.

"Char," Peter said as he once more moved me to his lap. "Baby, it's good."

It was an awkward configuration, me in Peter's lap with his hands running up and down my back while Jasper kneeled before us with his hand trapped in mine. We stayed like that until well after it had turned to night outside. Jasper periodically tried pulling back some of the emotions that he was using with me, and when my terror had settled to a level that I could manage it alone, I nodded at him and let go of his hand.

"Thank you," I quietly said to him as he nodded and took a seat in the chair across from Peter and me once more.

"Darlin'," Peter said, "I want you to trust me. I would _never_ risk you."

"I trust you," I turned to Peter and waited as he and Jasper had another silent conversation.

"I bought a property there," he said cautiously, waiting on my reaction. When there wasn't one, he continued, "It's everything that we talked about. It's perfect and I want to show it to you. If it doesn't feel right to you we will sell it and never go back."

"Ok," I replied quickly shocking the both of them.

It wasn't that I was ok with going anywhere near the hell that I had been raised to this life in. It was that I had always trusted my life in Peter's hands and though he and Jasper may have pulled some stupid stunts that forced us to move, he had never put my life at risk and I knew that he never would. If he said that he'd _had_ to go there, then I wouldn't question that, because following a feeling like that is what had brought him to me. As impulsive as I found Peter to be, at times, I knew that it would be impossible for him to ask anything of me that he felt would endanger me.

They recovered from their shock at my rapid willingness to go back to Texas. Peter began telling us about the area. I could hear the longing in his voice as he described the slight rolling hills that were contained by the property. It sounded exactly like what he and I had talked about. He mentioned the house needing a little work, but assured both me and Jasper that it wasn't the same sort of improvements that this apartment had needed. I laughed quietly at his insistence. It had taken quite a bit of scrubbing and cleaning products for us to eradicate the smell of cabbage and urine to a level that was barely noticeable.

"Peter," Jasper finally interrupted Peter's recounting of the beauty of the area.

"You'll see," Peter said to him with a wink and a laugh, "and then you can thank me for my amazing describing skills. Stop being such a doubter. I know I fucked up with this place."

"No," Jasper said and started shaking his head slightly.

"No," Peter asked and I felt his arms tighten around me.

"I won't be going," Jasper answered. "If you'll let me, I'm staying here."

"You hate it here," Peter replied, "You're always complaining about the smell."

"I'm not going," Jasper said more firmly, leaving no room for Peter to argue with him.

"You can stay here," I whispered as my guilt at Jasper's declaration grew, "For as long as you want. This is your home too."

"Thank you Char," Jasper said to me with a nod.

"Of course," I replied and Peter just nodded with me.

"I think I should go now," Jasper said as he stood.

"We're your family," Peter said as he stood and drew Jasper into a hug, "You are always welcome to come home to us."

"I know," Jasper said and then pushed Peter playfully away and turned to me.

"Jasper," I said, fighting the part of me that said he was a danger to me and going to wrap my arms around his waist, "we will always be here for you. You are important to us."

"And you are both important to me," he replied and then stepped away from me.

Peter wrapped an arm around my shoulders and we stood in the living room like that while we watched Jasper leave. As soon as the door closed, I turned to him and wrapped my arms around him and began running my hands up and down his back. I knew that Jasper's decision to leave had hurt him, and I wasn't sure how to comfort him. His arms went around me and I heard him inhale deeply against the top of my head.

"We should go," he said, his voice muffled by my hair. "It'll be easier."

He didn't say if it would be easier for him or for Jasper and I didn't ask for clarification. I simply reached up and gave him a kiss and then went to our room to pack our belongings. Peter joined me, and soon had our bags in his hands. He took a last look at our room, then smiled at me and led the way to the car.

"But Char," Peter whined shortly after we had driven out of Chicago headed south, "you promised."

"Peter," I laughed at him, "you don't have to whine about it."

"Darlin'," he replied trying desperately not to whine, "this is the perfect place."

"Yeah," I questioned still laughing, "And you said that a mile back too."

"But," he whined again, "it's road head."

I scooted closer to him, and rested my head against his chest as he drove. This was going to be a very long trip, and I was still nervous about where we were heading. I didn't let him whine about road head too much longer, and he rewarded me by pulling to the side of the road somewhere in Missouri to repay the favor. Once we crossed into Arkansas, he started hinting again and it turned into whining again halfway through that state. I gave in again, and we kept up this pattern until we pulled to a stop in Fort Worth to hunt.

When we were back on the road after our hunt, Peter grew strangely quiet. I could feel him watching me as I watched the scenery go past the car. The area really was beautiful, and I grew more and more hopeful that this place would become our home. Peter slowed down as we went through Abilene, pointing out a few places that he thought might interest me as we passed them. It was a small town, and he seemed to feel very at home with describing some of the people that he'd encountered during his short time here. We soon left the small town behind us, and he tucked me more into his side as he navigated the dark country roads. He made the final turn onto what was no more than a dirt path and looked at me with a smile.

"We're here," he whispered as he pressed a kiss to the side of my head.

We drove in silence until he stopped the car in front of a slightly age-worn house. He took my hand, and helped me from the car.

"It needs a little work," he said squeezing my hand slightly and pulling me towards the porch, "but the inside is in better shape than the outside."

"It's beautiful," I said to him as I looked at the property, "It's absolutely perfect."

"I thought it might be," he replied and pulled me down to sit on the front steps with him. "You like it?"

"I love it Peter," I turned to him with a smile as I spoke, "I'm glad you found it for us. It already feels like home."

Peter shifted slightly, and I could see the nervousness creep into his eyes but I didn't question it. I reached up and ran my fingers along his jaw. I was so glad that he'd not listened to my demands that he not buy another property. He knew us so well, and this place truly was going to be perfect for us. He pulled a small box from one of his pockets and began to fidget with it. I assumed that it held the key to the front door and I nodded at him.

"Char," he began, "You know that you're my everything."

I nodded at him, but didn't interrupt him.

"I can't imagine ever not having you by my side," he said and leaned over to kiss my lips softly.

"Darlin'," he said as he opened the box and dropped to one knee, "Will you marry me?"

"Peter, I," I started with a strength in my voice that rapidly faded into sobs.

His arms went around me, ran up and down my back soothing me. I couldn't do more than turn into his chest and let him. I couldn't answer him. This wasn't like the last time when he'd asked me in the heat of a moment of passion. He had planned this one, and I knew everything now. I knew that a union between us would never bring us children. I knew that I would never be able to be for him all that a wife would be. It wasn't that I didn't want to tell him yes, it was that I knew that he deserved so much more than I could ever give him.

"Shhh," he cooed at me, "it's ok Darlin'."

"But," I sobbed into his chest, "babies."

"I know," he pressed a kiss to the top of my head, and the ring disappeared back into his pocket. "It's alright. Shhh."

He didn't get mad with me this time, like he did the last time that he asked and I freaked out on him. We stayed on the front steps and he let me know that it was ok and that he wasn't upset. I know that it hurt him on some level to have me say no to him again. I couldn't get into all of the reasons with him. My own insecurities were too fresh and I was afraid of hurting him more by sharing them with him. I knew that eventually we'd talk about them so I wasn't burdened by feeling that I was keeping anything from him. Once his eyes were smiling at me again, and I was able to smile at him again he took me on a grand tour of our new home.

"Darlin," Peter called down from the roof a week later, "I don't really know what I'm doing up here."

"You're doing fine," I said to him, "Take your shirt off though. It's more authentic."

I watched as he took off his shirt and tossed it down to me. Neither of us knew much about the home improvements that we were doing on the house, but we'd read the books and I knew that he would be fine with the roof. I took a seat on the grass next to the cut tin, watching him move as he replaced the roofing and ready to pass him more when he needed it. Watching him was a practice in restraint for me.

"You know," he called down, "if you helped me it would be done faster."

"I know," I laughed up at him, "but then I'd miss the view."

I enjoyed the home repair work a lot more than he did, but that was probably because I made him do most of it while I sat back and admired the view of his body working fluidly to accomplish the tasks. We were taking advantage of the daylight hours to get most of the work done, and we'd spend our evenings wrapped around each other. Neither of us was bold enough to tackle running electricity given the danger that it presented to us if it was done improperly. Peter happily hired someone to come out and handle all of those repairs for us and soon the house was fully repaired and updated.

"Peter," I said as I pawed at his hand that covered my eyes, "what the hell are you doing?"

"It's a surprise," he laughed at me and walked me around to the front of the house.

"I don't like surprises," I told him and he just laughed again and moved his hand.

There, sitting on the porch were four rocking chairs painted to match the shutters that we had just finished hanging two days ago. They were perfect.

"Oh Peter," I gasped and turned to give him a kiss, "They're perfect."

"I told you so," he laughed at me and began pulling me towards the porch.

"You don't have to be smug," I laughed and lightly slapped his arm. "Normally your surprises end up in us having to leave town."

"True," he said pulling me into his lap as he settled into one of the chairs.

"I love you," I whispered as I settled into him.

"I love you too," he whispered back.

"This is home," I said while he rocked the two of us.

"Always," he said. "We'll be very happy here."

"I already am," I replied.

* * *

**E/N: For those of you that follow us on Twitter either at TexAssPete and PetersSugarTits or over on WhitlockWiseOne and Peters1GirlChar then the meaning of "Nebraska" will be clear to you all. For those of you that don't, well, you'll see how we got our reputations. I'm still looking for requests for outtakes, and I would love to see any guesses about what happened in Nebraska. You can leave them in a review for me!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Well, here's Nebraska.**

* * *

My woman was a slave driver. That was something that I never would have guessed about her before I bought that fixer-upper in Texas. The first year we were there, I don't think I wore a shirt more than three days total. She preferred I work without one on and who was I to deny my Char anything. I tried to get her to work without her shirt on too, but that idea didn't go over too well.

We had the house habitable quickly, and then we spent the next five years doing renovations and updates, furnishing it and really making it ours. I pretty much turned it all over to Char because I didn't care what it looked like as long as she was happy and she didn't want a repeat of that disastrous apartment in Chicago so she was more than happy to make all the decorating decisions. Jasper wrote pretty regularly over the years and we'd met up with him briefly a few times; it got so that even Char looked forward to us hearing from him. I missed him, but he really was doing better on his own. He'd met a girl, and she was really good for him according to his letters. Char figured she must be a saint to put up with his moody ass, but she was happy for him nonetheless.

After we finished fixing up the house, I still had a nice chunk of money left from when me and Jasper had robbed the bank and as the country began to recover from the economic depression, I was able to make some good investments that left us sitting pretty. I had worried that I'd have to become a bank robber to be able to provide for my woman. I thought it was a pretty good career option, but she found a letter that I was writing to Jasper asking him about meeting up to hit a bank in South Dakota and I was afraid that her head was going to start spinning around backwards. Pissed off Char is hot as hell, and the make-up sex that we had after I admitted to not thinking the plan through was amazing, but I decided to write a different letter to Jasper that didn't mention robbing any banks.

I measured the passing years in the swaying of Char's ass, the bouncing of her tits, and the number of times I got to help her clean off in the tub or the shower. The property changed, I did anything that she wanted to help with the improvements. She surprised me with a horse, and I figured out that it was pretty easy to get her nekkid when we rode together. We had cows now, and I'd help out with them as much as cloud cover would let me because Char thought it was hot to watch me work. It was boring, but she'd usually suck my dick at the end of the day so it was worth it.

Over the next fifteen years, I proposed to Char ten more times. She always said no, and we'd talked about her reasons. I didn't agree with them, but stopped taking it personally when she wouldn't agree to marry me. It didn't really matter because I still got road head just about every time we went anywhere in the car. I really wanted her to marry me, but I figured if I kept on asking, eventually she'd agree just to get me to stop. It hadn't happened yet, but I knew she wouldn't be able to resist my charm forever. Each time, I tried something a little bit different, and it was my trying to come up with another unique way to ask my woman to marry me that led to our road trip. She loved our property, and other than a few days of travel here or there mostly to meet up and visit with Jasper, we'd pretty well stayed there all of this time. I finally convinced her that we needed a vacation and that a road trip was in order.

"Everything will be fine," I said that evening as I tried to get her to get in the car, "Just get in the damn car."

"I just need to double check the back door," Char replied and I happily checked out her ass as she ran back into the house for the third time.

"Alright," I asked her when she finally got back in the car, "Can we go now?"

"Yup," she answered with a smile. "Just remember, you agreed not to ask for road head until after we get out of Texas."

"I know," I sighed and started the car.

She didn't make me wait. I got road head long before we hit Fort Worth and by the time we reached Wichita, Kansas I started trying to convince her that we could have sex without me having to pull over to the side of the road. It was a legitimate claim, and I made sure to point out all the reasons why it was a good idea. She finally agreed to give it a try and mounted me as we crossed the state line into Nebraska. It was a little more of a challenge than I thought it would be and we ended up bouncing our way straight through a cornfield. I didn't wreck the car but we ruined the field. The car barreled through a white picket fence twice, but Char was so busy screaming my name that I was pretty sure she didn't notice the people sitting on the porch staring after the car with narrowed eyes. I wasn't too worried about it; they probably were just trying to figure out where we'd come from since I was driving pretty fast.

"Fuck Peter," she sighed as she slid off of me and back into the passenger seat.

"I know," I turned to look at her as I spoke and wiggled my eyebrows at her, "It was pretty awesome, huh?"

"Yeah," she said breathlessly as she grinned at me, nodding quickly. "I don't think those people were too happy about their fence though."

"Probably not," I laughed out loudly. "We'll leave the area."

"Good call Sug," she replied and settled back into my side.

We drove west for a few hours when Char decided she wanted a turn driving. I wasn't entirely in favor of this plan because it meant no road head for me, but I was willing to return the favor for my woman so I pulled in at a gas station.

"One tank," I told her as I began filling the car's gas tank. "Then it's my turn again."

"We'll see," she said to me as she walked around the car and my eyes were locked on that perfect sway that her ass does when she gets something she wants so all I did was nod at her.

We were back on the road pretty quickly, and I was _not _sitting in the passenger's seat pouting because I couldn't drive. Char was a good driver, she'd been driving as long as I had been, but I just preferred to be the one behind the wheel.

"Come over here Sug," she purred at me patting the seat next to her.

"I'm ok," I replied cutting my eyes over to see her unbuttoning her top.

"Please," she asked and I turned my head just as she threw her shirt in the backseat.

Well, she'd _tried_ to throw it in the backseat but we had all of the windows in the car rolled down, and it had just sorta flown straight out of the back window. I wasn't complaining, or pointing that shit out to her. We had more clothes in the trunk and right now, I was enjoying the scenery. I moved closer to her and she reached out to lay a hand on my leg.

"This is better," she said and began running her hand along my thigh.

"You're playing with fire," I growled at her and let my finger trace the curve of her breast.

"So are you," she challenged and so I dipped my head to her neck.

"I'm not afraid of getting burned," I said as I ran my nose up her neck.

A slight shudder ran through her body at my low words and I smirked against her skin. I loved the effect that I had on my woman. I squeezed her breast slightly and let my thumb graze her nipple and earned a moan for all my work. Her hand trailed higher and higher up my thigh and Tex was screaming at being confined while she was being so attentive. He didn't stay that way long before she had my pants open. I was impressed that she'd managed to free him while I was nipping at her neck and pinching her nipples. She hadn't even swerved out of our lane once.

Seeing how steady she was behind the wheel with the attention that I was giving her body gave me the confidence that she could handle more. All it took was a little pressure from my fingers and I'd ripped out the crotch of her pants. She spread her legs slightly and I took that as an invitation and slipped a finger inside of her.

She was warm, wet heat and I just had to have a taste even though it meant she wouldn't be stroking my cock anymore. I laid my head in her lap and swiped my tongue over her sex. She jerked at the contact, but I didn't care. I swirled my tongue around her clit and figured out a way to wedge my arm under my head so that I could stroke her with my fingers and still taste her. I felt the car bump beneath us a few times and heard small crunches or crashes but it didn't matter because I could feel Char's pussy starting to clamp down on my fingers as I pushed them into her. I gave her clit a gentle suck and thrust my fingers deep inside her curling them just like she liked and felt her whole body tense just before she screamed my name and fell apart. I lapped at her as the car came to a sudden stop and it wasn't until I felt her calm that I sat up and winked at her.

"Get the bags Peter," she said quickly.

"What," I asked her, "Why? I was about to ask you to pull over so I could fuck you proper."

"I just crashed the car," she told me and took my face in her hand and turned it to look out of what used to be the windshield.

"Damn," I whistled out as I looked at the shocked woman running the vacuum in her living room that now surrounded our car. "Yeah, I'll just get the bags."

I climbed into the backseat with Char right behind me and grabbed our bags out of the trunk. She looked from me to the totaled car and then to the direction that we could hear sirens coming from.

"We gotta go Darlin'," I said to her.

"But the car," she replied but followed me anyway as I started walking away from the accident scene.

"Fuck the car," I laughed, "It won't drive anymore. We'll get another one."

We walked at a brisk human pace away from the accident and out of the neighborhood. I stopped us in an alley just off of Main Street and pressed Char into the brick wall of the building.

"Pick out a car," I murmured against her ear as I fondled her tit. "Any one you want."

"That one," she purred at me as she pointed at a jet black Chevy Bel Air just down the street and I could smell her arousal as it surrounded us.

"Stay here with the bags, put on a shirt and be ready to run," I growled, "I'm driving again."

I lucked out and the keys were in the car. I pulled up to the alley and Char tossed the bags into the back seat as she got in quickly. We were soon speeding down a country road with the radio blasting. Unfortunately, this meant that Char was singing at the top of her lungs. I tried hard not to flinch while she sang along, but it was a challenge. Thankfully, the station took a programming break. They announced an Elvis concert in the next town tonight and Char turned to me with a light in her eyes.

"I wanna go," she said as she graced me with her beautiful smile and there was no way that I was going to deny her.

"We'll get a hotel room in town," I replied, smiling back at her, "You can get a bath while I go get us tickets."

She wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed a kiss to my cheek with a quietly whispered "thank you" and made my whole fucking day. I found us a hotel and got her settled in before heading to the ticket office. They said they were sold out when I tried to buy us tickets, but I just smiled and thanked them. It's not like a lack of tickets was going to keep me from getting Char in to see that concert tonight. When I got back to the hotel room, my girl was dressed and perched on the edge of the bed waiting for me.

"Let me get cleaned up and we can head out," I said to her with a wink. "I want us to go for a quick hunt before the concert."

Char let me hunt for her that night and I found her a very delectable smelling man that just happened to have a crew pass into the theater. It made getting in really easy. There were too many screaming girls, in my opinion, but both of us really enjoyed the concert. After Elvis sang his last number, I slipped the hotel and car keys into Char's hand.

"Go get our stuff and meet me with the car out back," I said as I pressed a kiss on the side of her head.

She looked up at me and smiled as she nodded. I watched as she turned and started to saunter off. When she reached the door, she turned back to me and winked.

"Don't eat Elvis," she said with a chuckle far too fast for the humans around us to hear her.

That wasn't my plan, but it did plant an idea in my head. I quickly dismissed it though because Char and I were on vacation and I didn't think she'd be happy about cutting it short to deal with a newborn, even if he was The King. Maybe some other time though. I moved through the crowds slowly, giving her enough time to do what I'd asked of her. By the time I got backstage, I knew that Char would be sitting behind the building waiting and wondering what I was up to. It was a simple thing to slip into Elvis' dressing room, and it was even easier to grab his guitar. A smile crossed my face as I walked, unnoticed out of the dressing room and made my way to the rear exit.

"Hey you! Stop him!" I heard as I pushed open the door. I didn't stop, just got in the passenger's seat of the car with the guitar and winked at Char with a grin on my face.

"Drive like hell Darlin'," I told her as I shut the car door.

She did too. It was sexy as hell watching her drive that car like the beast that it was. I was getting a little turned on watching her as she coaxed the car faster and faster. I saw another side of her as I watched her push that car to its limit and then made it give her more. There was a focused determination about her and when she turned her head at me and winked I nearly came in my pants.

"We need to stop," I growled at her through the cloud of lust that was quickly making me lose all rational thought.

"Ten minutes," she answered me and I nodded as my mind went through all of the things that I wanted to do to her.

She pulled the car into a lot on the edge of a town. It was pretty late, so I wasn't too worried about anyone coming across us. I took Char's hand after we got out of the car and we started walking through the park that she'd found. I wanted her right now, but I also wanted this peace that the two of us were sharing.

"It's pretty here," Char said after a while and I just raised my eyebrows. "What? It is."

"I know," I replied, "I'm just surprised you're not pissed."

"About what," she asked.

"The guitar," I said as I shrugged a little.

"Oh yeah," she sighed and looked up at me with a small smile, "well, we're on vacation and you needed a souvenir."

"Yes," I replied with a playful growl and turned her so I could run my nose up her neck, "we are. And I have more plans for you."

"You do," she purred back at me and her hands were already running up my chest.

"Umhmm," I answered and began sucking on that spot just behind her ear that has always driven her wild.

"I'd like to learn more about these plans of yours," she said as she began pulling off my shirt.

"I think you know," I told her, pulling back from her enough to pull off my shirt and hers.

"Why don't you tell me," she asked as her mouth grazed across my chest, "Just so we're clear."

"Mmmm," I muttered as I cupped her breast in my hand.

She pulled back from me and sat down just off of the pathway we'd been on. My woman leaned back slightly and crooked her finger at me with those bedroom eyes of hers darkening as they roamed my body and I couldn't resist her. I moved quickly, and hovered above her.

"I'm gonna fuck you senseless," I growled at her, "That's what I've got planned."

She growled back at me as I ripped off her pants, and she did the same to mine. She was writhing beneath my touch exactly like I wanted her to be. I quickly flipped her beneath me and began trailing my tongue down her spine. Her skin tasted divine, but it was nothing compared to the flavor of her sex. The scent of her arousal hung heavy in the air around the two of us and as much as I was enjoying the taste of her on my tongue, I needed to be inside of her. I grabbed her hip and thrust deep inside of her.

"Shit," I growled as I began to move.

"Oh fuck," she moaned and pushed her ass back into me. "Harder."

I was relentless and animalistic as I pounded into her, and she was just as bad. She was growling her demands for more of me; snarling for me to push harder and go faster. I pressed a hand between her shoulder blades pressing her chest to the ground beneath us, forcing her to submit to me as I gave her what she asked for. It was what she wanted, what I needed and I felt her falling apart around me. The tension that had wound so tight inside of me released as I felt her walls clamp down around me and I roared her name as I collapsed against her.

"Oh my lord! Herbert, look!" I heard shrieked in horror followed quickly with a "Sweet Jesus Maude. We need to go call the police," and several small growls and yips. I pressed a kiss to the back of Char's neck and raised my head slightly to see two very elderly people scurrying away from us dragging a small dog on a leash behind them.

"Damn it," Char growled beneath me having obviously seen and heard the old people. "I wasn't ready for us to move yet."

"Me either Darlin'," I sighed as I pulled out of her.

She just whimpered in response to the loss of our bodies' connection but didn't move so I gave her ass a little slap and chuckled.

"Get that fine ass movin' or we'll be dealing with the police," I said.

We got back to the car, and put some clothes on as quickly as we could. There was no question about who was driving; it had to be me because I knew that there was no way that I would be able to watch Char driving like that again without us pulling over. I drove for several hours, stopping once for gas. It was a pretty uneventful drive and Char just stayed tucked into my side as we cruised along listening to music. She enjoyed the scenery and I was enjoying looking down her shirt.

"You want to get a room Darlin'," I finally asked her as we drove into a small town in northeastern Nebraska.

"That would be nice," she said as she smiled up at me, "I think we could both use a bath."

That settled it in my mind. A bath with my woman was always on my to-do list and I found us a decent hotel. There were no problems with us checking in, and soon we were both relaxing in the small tub in our room. It was impossible to expect me to do nothing with my woman right there, nekkid and wet and pressed into me. Turns out, she had the same idea that I did and we ended up making a mess of the bathroom but it was totally worth it because she was screaming my name loud enough that someone knocked on the room's door before we were done.

"I'm going out the window as soon as I'm dressed," Char said to me as she hurried to pull on this pair of white shorts that did amazing things to her ass.

"Should I leave money for the bathroom," I asked her as I buckled my belt.

"I don't care," she said tossing our bags out of the window.

"Ok," I replied and took one last look at the wreck of a bathroom. "Fuck it."

I slipped out of the window behind her and grabbed our bags. Once we were back on the road, headed south, Char broke the peaceful silence that had settled around us.

"Fuck," she whispered.

"What," I asked her, glancing over to see her with her face buried in a newspaper, "Where did you get that?"

"It was pushed under the door so I grabbed it," she replied without looking at me, "This ain't good."

She folded the paper back up and held it up so that I could see the front page. Looking back at me from just beneath the headline was a rough drawing of my face.

"Shit," I said.

"I know," she said with a roll of her eyes. "You're much more handsome than this picture."

"Thank you Darlin'," I replied and leaned over to give her a quick kiss.

"Two wanted in connection with vandalism, theft and property destruction spree," she read. "Ruined fields, destruction of private property, blah, blah, blah."

"They make it sound impressive," I interrupted her and she just winked at me.

"This is bullshit," she exclaimed suddenly.

"What's that Char," I asked.

"Well, they've got the drawing of you," she said tapping my likeness on the front page, "but they're calling me a bad Marilyn Monroe imitator."

"She can't hold a candle to you," I reassured her because it was fucking true.

"You think so," she said and tossed the paper aside.

"I know so Darlin'," I purred at her, "You're the hottest thing I've ever seen."

"Really," she asked and started kissing my neck.

"Without a doubt," I answered her and felt my pants begin to tighten as she pressed her amazing tits into me.

"I wanna ride," she growled as she slid into my lap.

"I'm not gonna stop you," I told her and reached between us to unfasten my pants, quickly correcting the swerve of the car.

"Good," she said as she removed her shorts and pulled her shirt off.

"Get up here," I growled at her as I shimmied my pants down to my knees and passed some Sunday driver quickly.

"Oh god Peter," Charlotte wailed against my neck, impaling herself on me as we sped down the road.

"Fuck Char," I groaned out, swerving around another car.

Dirt and grass flew up behind us as I forced the car back onto the road. Char sat back slightly with another shift of her hips and a moan, eyes closed and tits bouncing right in my face. I leaned forward and captured her nipple in my mouth. The sound of a mailbox meeting its end quickly passed as I flicked my tongue over the tautness of her nipple. There was a bump and I heard and felt the car leave the ground. We were flying, through the air, yes, but more importantly towards a sweet release. I took my hands off of the steering wheel while the car was suspended in the air and gripped Char's hips tightly, thrusting up into her roughly.

"Jesus baby," I grunted as I pushed into her over and over, "you're so fuckin' tight."

"Harder," she gasped, "so close."

The impact of the car landing helped me to oblige my mate and the force that I pounded into her with had her walls clamping around me. She milked my cock for all that it had. I swear, I saw stars. Neither of us moved for several minutes.

"Where are we," she asked with a groan as she slid from my lap into the seat next to me.

"Um," I answered as I looked through what was left of the car's windows. "We're on top of a building."

"Which one," she questioned.

I heard sirens, and turned to look back where we'd come from. There was a large sign, now laying in two pieces in front of the building. A group of people was beginning to gather under a tree not far from the broken sign and the police were just starting to arrive.

"You ain't gonna like this," I said turning to face her.

"I can hear the cops," she huffed at me, "Just tell me where we are."

"We're on top of the Freeman School," I told her.

"What," she hissed out.

"According to that sign," I said, pointing over my shoulder with my thumb before leaning over to give her a kiss, "it's a historical landmark of some sort."

"Please step out of the vehicle with your hands up," we both heard coming from below us.

"Shit," Char muttered and reached for her door handle.

We got out of the car, and followed the instructions of the police and the park rangers that were gathered at the base of the building. We really hadn't done as much damage as they were making out like. It just needed a new roof now. We both tried to look shaken up, but I'm not sure that the officers were buying it since we were both naked. I wasn't real happy about how they were all looking at my woman, but I couldn't blame them because she _is_ hot. They wasted no time with getting handcuffs on us and putting us into the backseat of separate police cars. As much as I hated being separated from Char, especially knowing she was nekkid, I had to hand it to them. If we'd been in the same car, we most likely would have had sex again.

The ride to the police station was pretty quiet, and I tried to look contrite in the back seat every time the officer's eyes cut to the rear view mirror. I don't think I fooled him though. I was marched into the station house behind Char, and we were both still nekkid so my eyes were locked on the delicious sway of her bare ass. We were both booked and given prisoner's uniforms to put on before we were placed in separate cells. Fortunately for us, they only had two cells and no other prisoners.

"Darlin'," I asked as I moved over to the bars that were keeping me from wrapping my arms around my woman.

"I'm ok," she reassured me and moved as close to me as she was able, "You know what's gonna happen now?"

"They said we have a court appearance first thing in the morning," I said to her, reaching between the bars to run my fingers down her neck. "It's only a couple more hours; I'll just bribe the judge."

"I need you again," she said and her hands went to the tie at my waist.

"I will never deny you Darlin'," I replied as my pants pooled at my ankles.

"I didn't like them staring at my tits," she purred as she began to stroke my dick. "They're yours."

"They are," I growled at her through the bars and watched with hooded eyes as Char dropped to her knees.

She ran her tongue along my length with a purr, and then undid the tie on her pants. I couldn't decide if I wanted to watch her mouth or the hand that she slid into her pants. I inhaled sharply as her lips slid along my length and the scent of her arousal was overwhelming.

"Fuck Char," I groaned as I pushed deeper into her mouth.

She began purring and the hand in her pants was moving just as quick as her mouth was moving along my cock. My woman was a sex kitten and I loved every bit of it. She brought both of us to the brink only to pull back and start over again. It was torture of the best kind and when she finally shoved her fingers all the way into her pussy with a shudder and a growl against my cock, it was over. My head rested against the bars that still separated us and she looked up at me with a wink as she licked her fingers clean and tied her pants again. My woman had fucking drained me and I couldn't move. I could still feel the bliss of my orgasm and she laughed quietly and pulled my pants back up. She was just tying them when the door opened at the end of the hall and the sigh that the officer made was audible. He thought we were incorrigible, and he was right. We followed his directions and instructions as he led us to the courtroom that was upstairs from where they'd held us. Char and I stood side by side as the judge entered the courtroom. As soon as I took one look at him I _knew_ that we wouldn't have a hard time getting out of all of this.

"Case number 755481, The State of Nebraska versus I. Will Stroker and Anita Biggun, the Honorable Jack Goff presiding," the court reporter announced and Char and I were trying to hold back our laughter.

"Nice one Darlin'," I whispered too low for the humans around us to hear.

The judge asked us to enter a plea and I took a step forward and raised an eyebrow at him. I wasn't sure exactly what it was, but I knew that this guy had a secret that he didn't want to get out and I intended to exploit it as best I could.

"Your honor," I stated with a smile for him.

"Mr. Stroker, what is your plea," the judge asked me.

"Well sir," I said with my shit eating grin in place, "I'm sure _you_ can sympathize with what's happened."

The Honorable Jackoff just looked real uncomfortable and waved for me to continue.

"As you can see," I turned to wink at Char, "Anita is a fine specimen and it ain't easy to resist her. Surely _you_ can understand that."

I watched as his eyes studied my woman, and I held back my growl at the hungry look on his face. She wouldn't have anything to do with him and I _knew _I needed him more vulnerable to make this work.

"Sometimes," I continued as he proceeded to eye fuck my woman, "one thing just leads to another. I'm willing to pay for damages. That's a _more generous_ offer than I'm sure you normally get in a plea."

The judge's eyes snapped to mine and I gave him a wink and my shit eating grin again. He cleared his throat and began shuffling through the paperwork in front of him. I'd done it. He thought I knew a lot more than I did, and I stepped back to stand next to Char while he fidgeted.

"Five thousand in damages," he said as he knocked his gavel against his desk, "And Mr. Stroker and Ms. Biggun, I'll suspend the ten year sentence for public nudity contingent upon you avoiding Nebraska in the future. Should you choose to cross the state line again, you'll be in violation of this order and a bench warrant will be issued immediately for your arrest."

We were escorted from the courtroom as soon as we'd signed the paperwork that effectively banned us from the state of Nebraska. A uniformed officer walked us out of the courthouse and opened the back door to his cruiser. We slid into the car, still in our prison garb and settled in for the drive to the state line. The officer let us know that he would be dropping us off at a bus station in Topeka, Kansas. He then pulled the car out of the parking lot and ignored us.

I was still holding back laughter from the whole courtroom drama. I pulled Char into my side and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. She was still trying not to laugh as well. I leaned down with a smile and pressed a kiss to the side of her head.

"No funny business back there," the officer said and we both started quietly snickering.

We had managed to ruin my plans for this vacation, but it was worth it. I'd wanted to drive Char through the state, stay in nice hotels, maybe take in a few movies and essentially wine her and dine her and then ask her again if she'd marry me. It was a long shot no matter what the circumstances. I was under no delusions that she would've said yes if I'd stuck to my original plans and not given in to my lust for her body. She still didn't feel like she was in a place where she could be my wife, but that wasn't something that would ever keep me from asking her. I knew, rather, I hoped that one day she would shock the shit out of me and say yes.

"Darlin'," I said pulling away from her slightly and tilting her face to mine.

"Yeah Sug," she questioned.

"This was the best vacation," I answered her with a smile.

"It really was," she agreed.

"Can I ask you something," I asked.

"You can always ask me anything," she replied getting serious.

"I'm pretty sure I already know what you're gonna say," I started and put a finger on her lips when she opened her mouth to interrupt me.

The little minx sucked my finger into her mouth and swirled her tongue around it, reminding me of how we spent our night in jail. I couldn't help but groan her name and the officer that was driving coughed loudly to remind us of his presence. It didn't stop Char though and she continued to work my finger like she had my dick. I briefly lost my train of thought and got lost in what my girl was doing to me. It was painful, but I knew that she'd take care of that as soon as she could. She gave me a little smile and released my finger.

"You had something to ask me," she purred at me.

"Yeah," I said as I adjusted my pants and tried to ease some of the pressure.

"Well," she replied and pressed her tits into me again. "what is it?"

"Will you marry me," I asked her.

"This is the best one yet," she said and pressed her lips to mine.

I had the briefest moment of hope while we kissed, but when the officer banged on the metal divider between the front and back seats and ordered us to separate I knew that this wasn't the right time for my girl.

"You don't have to answer Darlin'," I told her with a big smile. "I'll just start planning for the next one."

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**E/N: There you have it, the TRUE STORY of why the two of us can never go back to Nebraska.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I hope I didn't lose too many of you with that last chapter...I'm sure it seemed irrelevant, but Nebraska HAD to be explained. I forgot to thank Housemate and Sunshine with their contributions...I couldn't have done it without their help. Now, this chapter? It's got some nasty shit in it so if you have a weak stomach then you might not want to read it. Consider yourself warned, and enjoy!**

* * *

After we got home from our vacation, things fell back into a comfortable pattern between us. I would do everything that I could to get in Char's pants and she would let me succeed more often than not. It was a good time in both of our lives and we were happy. She decided that she wanted to put a small guest house on the back end of the property and I thought that was a great idea. After pouring over references and blueprints she finally hired someone from town to do all of the work.

It should have been a good thing. She'd said that it was so Jasper and his new wife would feel more comfortable with possibly visiting us and she was putting a lot of thought into making sure that this guest house would feel like a home for them. She let me help to a certain extent, asking me to choose between things that she'd already chosen but couldn't decide on. I was happy to put a smile on her face and so I'd pick whenever she asked. She questioned everything about the new building before they'd ever even gotten started with it to the point that it was starting to drive me crazy but this was her olive branch to my brother and I would put up with all of it so that she could do this for him.

"They poured the foundation today," she sighed as she dropped into the rocking chair next to me on the front porch.

"Really," I asked wondering why she seemed irritated by this fact.

"Yeah," was her reply, "I think I chose the wrong direction for the house to face. What if they won't like having sun in the living room area? What if they don't like the area I'm building it in? What if they hate the floor plan?"

"Darlin'," I interrupted her little freak out, turning to her and stilling both of our rockers, "it will be fine."

"I don't want it to just be fine," she admitted to me, "I want it to be perfect for them."

"You want to run over and take a look," I asked her and got a small smile.

"I think so," she answered with a slight nod and stood.

"You want me to come with you," I questioned her already knowing the answer.

"Of course I do," she replied rolling her eyes. "Why did you even ask that?"

"Because I like being difficult," I chuckled out as I followed her off of the porch.

"It shows Sug," she laughed and took off running across the property in the direction of the construction site.

I stayed just behind her as we ran, because the view of her ass was better than any scenery that I might be missing. I was so lost in watching the way it swayed as she ran that I didn't notice that we were slowing down until we'd already stopped. We weren't quite to the area that she'd had cleared earlier in the week yet, but she seemed distressed already. I took the two steps forward that I needed to and rested a hand on her waist to caress her there.

"What is it," I asked.

"I'm not sure yet," she answered me honestly. "but I've got a feeling."

I didn't like this. There was no threat here, but she was shaken and upset and I wasn't quite sure how to deal with it. She was on edge right now, and if I was honest with myself, I noticed that she had been for at least a week, since she'd allowed the general contractor and his crew access to what had always been our private domain and it was only getting worse. I didn't know what was going on with her, but I _knew_ that whatever it was probably wouldn't end well. She was the rock, the steady one of the two of us. Since she'd woken up to this life, she'd always managed to hold it together and I felt like I was watching the fabric that was her unravel before my eyes and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. I really didn't like this.

"You wanna let's go see what they've done," I questioned and gave her waist a little squeeze.

"Yeah," she said and started walking forward.

We walked to the edge of a small clearing and her eyes narrowed as she took in the area and the work that had been done. I was clueless, but she had been reading, studying the processes, the business of building houses and knew exactly what she was looking at. I stood silently next to her just inside the clearing with my arm around her waist and waited on her to explain to me what this mess in front of me meant. She didn't. Instead, she stepped away from me and walked over to the freshly poured concrete slab, avoiding the haphazard piles of lumber and other supplies that were scattered around, and gently touched the top with a fingertip. I hadn't moved and she turned her head to look at me as a low growl rumbled in her chest and she wiped her finger on her pants. This wasn't the sort of growl that I normally heard from her, and it didn't make my dick hard with the anticipation of things to come. My girl was pissed.

"What's wrong," I asked her again as she walked stiffly over to me shaking her head.

"This is _all_ wrong," she answered with a wave of her hand. "They're dicking me around and fucking it all up."

"You're sure," I questioned, already knowing that she was but hoping that my asking would help her calm enough to think more rationally than I knew she was.

"Positive," she said and I noticed that her eyes had gone black as they swept over the clearing.

"You want me to handle it," I asked her and ran my hand up and down her back and hoping that she'd take me up on my offer.

"No," she answered me with a shake of her head. "I'll deal with it when they get here tomorrow morning. Let's go back home."

I nodded, and followed her back to our house. I felt helpless to figure this out, to make this alright for her and the rage that I knew she was feeling right now was something that I'd never seen from her before. Even when she was a newborn and we were surrounded by hell, she appeared to be in better control of her anger than she had been in that clearing. When we made it to the house, she turned to me with her foot on the bottom step, took a deep breath and smiled that gorgeous smile that I loved, she was calmer and her eyes were back to the beautiful pools of red that I was used to seeing on her. She was impossible for me to resist and I leaned in to give her a kiss managing to cop a feel of her ass at the same time.

"Cheeky," she laughed at me with a playful slap at my chest.

"You know it," I answered with a waggle of my eyebrows.

And just like that, we were back to just being us. Her laughter echoed around us; I scooped her into my arms and sat on our porch swing and tried to figure out exactly what it was that I'd seen at the clearing with her. She seemed to melt into me, and I reveled in the feel of her body pressed against mine. This was normal, this was how Char had always been and I gently kicked the swing into motion; she smiled again as she felt us begin to move. She let me keep my hand on her ass as we gently swayed back and forth with the swing and I took that as a good sign that whatever had bothered her at the construction site was forgotten, at least for now.

"I want to put in a flower bed," she broke the comfortable silence between us.

"Where," I asked her.

"Right here," she answered with a nod of her head, "around the porch so that we can enjoy it."

"You're just trying to get me out of my clothes Char," I teased her. "I know your angle."

"Maybe," she laughed, "But I still want the flower bed. Will you go to town tomorrow and get some plants?"

"Sure," I said as I pressed a kiss to the top of her head, "What kind do you want?"

"Oh," she exhaled, "I don't know. Stuff that smells nice. You can choose."

"You're trusting me to decide," I chuckled and raised my eyebrows at her.

"I haven't forgotten that God awful apartment," she laughed, "but yeah, I'm trusting you to decide. Surprise me."

"It'll be good," I replied, "Way better than the apartment. I promise."

We passed the night on the swing, with her mentioning different plants from time to time and me feeling her up. She knew what I was doing and didn't stop me so I enjoyed myself even though we didn't have sex. She enjoyed herself too, and I knew that most of that was because I avoided talking anymore about what had happened on the construction site and was just there with her. I didn't need to bring it up; she would come to me when she was ready.

Morning dawned quicker than I would have liked it to and Char climbed out of my lap and ran her fingers through my hair. Her nails lightly grazing my scalp had me closing my eyes to purr and leaning into her touch. I opened my eyes and looked up at her with a smile.

"I love you, you know," she said to me.

"I know," I told her, "I love you too.

"I know," she replied with a beaming smile. "Now go get changed and get to town and buy me some plants."

"Yes ma'am," I laughed and gave her a mock salute before going into the house.

I changed clothes and drove the familiar roads to town all the while fighting a nagging feeling that maybe I should have put this off for another day. It wasn't that I _knew_ that something was about to happen it was more that I _knew_ that Char was going to need me and I just didn't know how or when and leaving her and knowing that was nearly enough to have me turn the truck around two separate times. But I didn't because I knew that this trip to town and the plants that I would be picking up would make a difference to her. They were important to her, and she'd trusted me to pick them out for her. There was no way that I would go back home without them.

The garden shop was a small building surrounded on three sides by row after row of different types of shrubs, trees, and flowers and the old lady that ran it was batshit crazy. She seemed to find it adorable that I was here buying plants for my young wife and she spent a good bit of time walking me through everything that she had available and telling me all about the plants. She asked me questions about planting conditions and soil types that I had to guess at and from the wink that she gave me, I was pretty sure she knew that I didn't have a clue. It didn't slow her down, or stop her from trying to help me out as best as she could given my limited knowledge.

"These are gardenias," she said waving at a small dark leafed shrub, "They smell lovely, but it can be a heavy scent if you plant too many of them. I have some Mexican Lavender around here. That would be perfect for you. It's very romantic."

I followed behind her, sniffing everything that she showed me and trying to decide what combination of scents wouldn't over-power us while we were sitting on the porch enjoying the view. When I'd find something that I knew would look perfect or that had a smell that I couldn't resist, I'd pull a couple of the pots out into the row. The lady would smile and nod at me each time I did, sometimes directing me to pull a different pot that had a better specimen. I was more than thankful for her help and hoped that by taking advantage of it, I wasn't going to fuck up the flower bed as badly as I had the apartment. We were walking up the last row, back towards the small shop that housed the indoor plants when it hit me. I _had_ to go home, immediately.

"I'm sorry," I turned to the old lady and pulled out my wallet. "I have to get home. I've just remembered something."

"That's alright," she said with a smile and I emptied all of my cash into her hand much to her surprise.

"Can you just deliver it next week," I asked her as I started to feel my panic rising, "Or I'll call you this afternoon to set something up."

I didn't even wait to hear what her answer was. It really didn't matter to me. What mattered was that two minutes had already passed since I got the feeling that it was past time for me to go back home and I was just now getting back into the truck. I could come back and pick out more flowers. Not knowing what was going on at home when this knowledge kept screaming at me to get my ass home was threatening my sanity with the images that initially kept flashing before my eyes. I waited on the idea that Charlotte was safe to solidify into more than just a hope as I drove like a bat out of hell back to our house. It took me half the time that the drive to the garden shop had taken and I jumped out of the truck as soon as I'd thrown it into park in front of the house.

"Charlotte," I yelled at the house and even I could hear the panic in my voice, but a quick inhale told me that she wasn't here. "Fuck."

I started running towards the construction site, following her scent and hoping like hell that I'd find her there mad as hell and ripping the contractor a new asshole. The closer that I got to the clearing, the less likely I thought that was going to be the case. I had no idea what had happened but her trail was tainted by the scent of old blood and I let out a heavy breath as I stepped into the same clearing that we'd been to yesterday.

"Jesus Christ," I breathed out.

It had been a long time since I'd seen anything that could even come close to the scene that was in front of me and even then, it would be hard to say which was worse. There were puddles of blood scattered throughout the clearing. Bits and pieces of human flesh littered the ground and covered all of the supplies that were here. It looked as if nothing was untouched by violence and death. The concrete slab that had been so smooth yesterday evening was the centerpiece; there were dismembered human bodies carelessly tossed into it. Every square inch of it was tinged with blood or human entrails. This was what rage looked like and my heart sank because I knew exactly whose rage had caused this.

"Charlotte," I called but I didn't expect an answer.

I could clean this mess up later. It was hidden from the prying eyes of humans and I needed to find my woman and make sure that she was alright. You couldn't just cause this much destruction and then turn it off, it was like a leak in a sinking ship you had to let it play out and hope that when it was all over that your head was still above water. I had to find her and make sure to keep her afloat. I ran around the perimeter of the clearing and found Char's scent trail.

"Shit," I said as I followed the trail deeper into the tract of land.

She was headed towards our closest neighbor's small farm and I was pretty sure that we weren't going to have to worry about sending them a Christmas card this year. The trail was a little fresher than the one leading to the construction site had been, but it wasn't fresh enough that I had any delusions of being able to save the neighbors.

I slowed as I approached their house and the first thing that I noticed was the bloody smear on the back door that was hanging on by a single hinge. I ran my hand down my face as I stepped into the house. I took a deep breath, and Char wasn't here. The scent of blood was on the air but it wasn't as strong as it had been on our property. This was a good thing. I walked through the simple kitchen and saw nothing out of place. In the living room, the main wall was painted with what looked like an arterial spray that led down the hallway. There were bloody drag marks in the carpet that screamed of a painful death and I followed them to the first body. It was broken so badly that it was nearly unrecognizable as human.

This was going to upset Char, when she realized what she'd done. I looked down at the man that used to be our neighbor; his head had nearly been severed from his body from the ferocity of her bite. My poor girl. I turned my head from the man, and saw his wife in an unnatural position at the end of the hallway in nearly the same condition as her husband. I searched the rest of the house and found no other bodies. The broken window in the front bedroom gave me a good idea of which direction Char had headed. I wanted to just leave this place and go find her, but I wouldn't yet. I needed to clean this mess up so that I could keep her safe. I walked into the kitchen and looked around. My eyes locked on the range and I went to it and set the oven timer. The pilot light would ignite in forty-five minutes. I pulled the range from the wall and with a snap of my fingers, severed the gas line. I pushed the range back into place, opened the oven door and quickly left the house.

I walked around to the front window that Char had jumped through and headed off after her as soon as I found her scent. The next house wasn't very far away and I stopped when it came into view. She was still in there. I could hear her snarling and growling like a newborn from here. I could also hear one slowing heartbeat and another that was sputtering to keep pumping blood. I started slowly walking towards the house when the heartbeats faded to just one.

"Char," I called out as I opened the door to the house, "Darlin', it's me."

I honestly wasn't sure if it would matter to her or not just who it was coming to her when she was in this state of mind. Rage affects every person differently, and vampires are no different. I had never seen Char be more than a steady presence. Sure, I've seen her pissed off a lot of times but this went so far beyond that. I knew that I wouldn't be able to console her if she, in this fit of rage, hurt me so I was gonna keep on talking and hope like hell that some part of her mind would let me in without hurting me.

There was a body in the kitchen, messy, but not tortured and the sight brought me some relief. I kept slowly walking through the house. There was another body in the living room, still messy, but still not tortured. It looked like she might just be winding down. I hoped so anyway.

"Darlin'," I called to her from the hallway. I knew that she was in the bathroom and I really didn't want to scare her or spook her by suddenly invading her space. "I'm close Darlin'."

I stopped at the bathroom door and she quickly turned to look at me. The sight just about broke my heart. Char was filthy and wild looking; her clothes were ripped and she was covered in blood and bits of flesh. Her hair ranged from a deep burgundy to a light pink and, where the blood had begun to dry, stuck to her head. Her eyes were still black, but she wasn't growling at me and that was a damn good sign. She pulled the woman tighter against her own body and I heard bones snapping as Char continued to draw from the dying woman's neck.

"I'm not gonna take it away Darlin,'" I said to her and leaned against the wall across from the doorway. "You take your time and finish up."

The woman's heartbeat began to fade, and Char's eyes started darting around most likely looking for an escape. I couldn't let that happen because she was already going to be tore up over the things that she'd done. There was no way that I would let her cause more of this sort of damage.

"You're almost done," I said quietly, "I'm here to help you Darlin', but you've got to come back to me."

The woman's heart stopped, Char took another deep pull from her neck then dropped her on the bathroom floor.

"Come here," I called to her and she took a tentative step over the body. "That's right, come on. I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm here to help you."

I took a chance and took a small step towards Char, opening my arms for her. She stared at me, but made no move forward. I knew that this wouldn't be a quick process, but I needed to speed it up just a little because I had to get her settled and clean this mess up then get her home and make sure that she was alright. And I had to do all of that without anyone seeing us.

"Darlin'," I pleaded with her, "please let me help."

She took another step towards me, and I closed the distance between us and wrapped her in my arms. She smelled terrible, but she was right where I needed her to be and I ran my hands up and down her back and whispered quiet reassurances to her until she raised her face to look at me with bright red eyes.

"Welcome back," I told her through my smile. "You had me worried for a minute there."

"What the hell did I do," she breathed out in horror.

"Shh," I said, "It's alright now. I've got you."

She buried her face in my chest and I held her for a little while longer. The relief that I felt that she was here and not still lost in that rage had me holding her a little tighter than I normally did. I pressed a kiss to her head and took a deep breath. I was running the risk of having her fall apart again, but we really needed to get back home soon.

"Char," I asked her and she raised her face to look at me, "I gotta get this place sorted."

She nodded at me and pulled a lighter out of her pocket. I gave her a smile and a nod and she seemed to move on automatic as she went from room to room lighting fabric on fire. I stayed with her, but let her do this because the familiarity of methodically setting a house on fire seemed to be keeping her calm for now. Most likely, she was in some sort of shock but it was working in our favor and she could fall apart again just as soon as I got her home. She dropped the lighter as we left the house and I pulled her to me again. I could feel her body shaking and I knew that she was crying.

"Shh," I whispered into her hair, "I've got you."

I scooped her up in my arms just as the boom from the other house sounded and began running the two of us home. She cried the whole way and I just kept telling her that I was there. When we got to our house, I went straight to the bathroom and turned on the shower. She clung to me when I tried to sit her down on her feet.

"Darlin'," I said quietly, "I just need to get us undressed. I'm not leaving you."

She nodded and let me put her down, but she couldn't seem to not be touching me so I didn't waste time with things like buttons and zippers. Her clothes weren't salvageable, and she was far more important than anything that I had on. I picked her back up when we were both naked and stepped into the shower. She laid her head against my chest and I made sure that the spray stayed out of her face. Eventually, she let me put her down so that I could begin to wash away the visible reminders of what had happened today. I had to wash her hair three times before the water it was rinsed with changed from crimson to pink and then ran clear.

This whole process took me back to Maria's camp and days of rewards when bathing in blood was something to strive for. I'd never had to deal with the consequences of those days on such a personal level. They ended with fires and ash, not with me wrapping my sobbing girl in a towel and promising her over and over that she'd not done the terrible things that she was afraid of. I carried her to our bed and curled her into me so that I could stroke her hair and tell her I loved her as many times as she needed to hear it. Eventually, she wasn't crying but I stayed there with her still. Just before the sun came up, she was calm enough to let me leave her side long briefly to deal with the construction site but as soon as I came back home and showered I was right back beside her.

She stayed at my side for weeks after that day but I didn't mind. I managed to buy the burned properties and we expanded our own borders a bit. We worked on the flower bed that she'd wanted and I even got her to smile after it was all planted. I was sitting in the swing watching the sun go down and breathing deeply the comforting scent of all of the plants that we'd just put in when she walked out of the house. She stopped just in front of me and smiled.

"You like it," she asked me still smiling.

"I do," I answered her as I pulled her into my lap. "It's soothing."

"You know what you've done don't you," she questioned me.

"What are you talking about," I replied only slightly nervous that I had no idea what she was talking about.

"The flowers," she said and leaned back to look up at me.

"I thought you were happy with them," I said.

"They smell like me," she laughed quietly in response.

I inhaled and damn if she wasn't right. I was engulfed in the smell of Char. I chuckled and took another deep breath.

"I told you it would be better than the apartment," was the only defense I offered up.

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**E/N: Thank you to everyone that reviews, to those of you that have me on alerts, and those of you that have favorited me or the story. I grin every time I get an email about any of those things. I'm still taking suggestions/requests for outtakes and sideshots for this story...so far, I have a request for Garret's story and a request to see what happened during Jasper and Peter's bank robbery. Keep them coming, I love hearing what you'd like to see!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: HUGE apologies for the wait for this chapter; I've been ill and if I can't carry on a conversation then I can't write one! The good news is that it's a longer chapter. Also, I just discovered **** /**** and have decided to start posting teasers there as I can work them into my writing schedule. You should go check them out, and follow them on Twitter if you're there! It's a great site with lots of resources and information. I'll continue to post my one line teasers on my Twitter account PetersSugarTits as I'm writing so keep looking for them, they'll have the hashtag #CIMTEASER in them. I also announce there when I've posted or updated a story. Feel free to follow me over on Twitter and say hey. You can also follow my Hubs there at TexAssPete. We're chatty folks on our OOC accounts. **

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"I have an idea," Peter said to me one morning while I was draped over him after a night filled with each other.

"Should I be scared," I asked as I raised my head from his bare chest to look up at him smiling wryly.

"Probably not," he answered with that smile of his that I can't ever seem to resist. "I think I need to get to the hardware store though."

"What for," I questioned as I sat up in bed so that he could move.

"I need to get some fence posts and stuff," he replied as he stood from the bed.

My eyes, naturally, grazed over his form as he moved to the dresser and pulled out a pair of jeans and a work shirt. He tossed them on the bed, along with a pair of socks and then leaned over to press a kiss to my lips.

"You want to come with me," he asked me.

"No," I told him, "I want to work with the horses a little today. I've nearly got that one ready for a rider."

"Sounds good Darlin'," Peter said as he started getting dressed while my eyes lingered on his chest. "You'd best get up and get moving unless you want to lie around all day."

"You just want to perv on me while I'm getting dressed," I laughed throwing off the covers and noticing the way is eyes roamed my curves, "It's just now seven am."

"You know me too well," he replied with that wicked smirk that makes me think of all the sorted things that I enjoy doing with him and to him.

I got out of bed and dressed for working with the horses while Peter finished getting himself ready. Once I had my hair pulled up into a pony tail and was downstairs, he came up behind me and snaked his arms around my waist, nuzzling his nose into my neck.

"I won't be long," he whispered as he kissed the side of my head.

"I'll be at the barn when you get back," I said through my smile as I ran my hands along his arms. "You'll come find me?"

"Always Darlin'," he said before unwrapping his arms and getting into the truck.

I started walking to the barn as the truck pulled off. I opened the door and stepped inside to the comforting smell of horses and hay. The four horses that Peter and I kept here whinnied a greeting to me and I spent some time with each of them, feeding them sweet feed from my hand, before I started working in the barn. I could have worked faster, using the speed that was so natural to me, but I enjoyed doing this work at a leisurely human pace. It kept the animals calmer and though I didn't get the satisfaction of sweating or muscle aches from the work it did bring back memories from my human life of long days of hard work. I think I found the slow pace just as soothing as the horses did. While I worked, I wondered exactly what it was that Peter was up to. He hadn't been forthcoming this morning and that usually happened for only a couple of reasons. He was either planning on surprising me with something, or he was up to something that he thought it would be better to ask for forgiveness for doing than for permission to do. I was just getting ready to saddle up the first horse for her work out when I heard the truck pull up just outside of the barn. I opened the big barn doors, not knowing why Peter would bring the truck out here other than to unload supplies. He stepped out of the truck and gave me a smile and I just smiled back at him.

"Why fence posts," I asked him as I pointed at the truck bed.

"I need to build a fence," he smartly answered.

"No shit Sherlock," I said with a laugh and a roll of my eyes. "Why are they so tall? You special order these?"

"Yup," he answered as he took an armful and walked them into the barn to put them down. "I needed something they couldn't jump out of."

"You do know that cows don't exactly jump," I told him as I dropped my armful on top of his. "And the fence line is still sturdy. I'm thinking I've got 10 more years in them posts."

"Ain't for cows," he said and dusted off his hands on his jeans. "Now come show me where I can put it up."

"Peter," I replied, "I don't even know what the hell you're doing, much less where you can put it up."

He smiled at me and laughed at the irritation on my face in a way that just made it seem to melt away. It helped that he'd kissed me soundly and twirled me around while he was laughing.

"You haven't told me shit about this project of yours," I huffed at him.

"I'm putting in a deer pen," he said as if it were the most logical explanation in the world. "We need some deer stock."

"We don't need deer stock," I told him.

"Yes we do," he answered me back.

"I'm pretty sure we," I started then held up my hands before continuing, "You know what? Never mind. Let's figure out where to put this thing."

He was hoping to put it directly off of the barn, but I thought it might be a better idea to put it just a bit away from the horses. We walked a piece from the barn before stopping and Peter declared that it should be a good place. I handed him the post hole digger after he put his armful of fence posts down.

"Now take off your shirt and get to work," I said as he took the tool from me with a grin.

"I didn't think you'd want anything to do with this," Peter said as he tossed off his shirt and started to dig the post holes.

I watched his biceps flex as he worked to get the dirt out of the hole for a few minutes before replying to him. God that man is beautiful.

"Oh," I said with a grin, "I'm all for anything that's got you doin' manual labor without a shirt on."

He just winked at me and kept working.

"So," I asked, "why do we need to stock deer again?"

"I have a feeling," was his answer and it was good enough for me.

"Work slow Sug," I said as I walked over to him and pressed a kiss to his cheek, "I don't want to miss anything and I promised the horses exercise today."

"You want some help," he asked me.

"That'd be nice," I answered as I started walking back towards the barn. "I always like it when we can work with them together. It's good for them to have the variety."

He wedged the post hole digger into the ground and threw his discarded shirt over his shoulder. He followed behind me, and I know he was staring at my ass. He'd say he was just being a gentleman and following the "ladies first" code, but I knew him well enough to know what he was really doing.

"I'd love to," he said to my ass, "and then you can come watch me dig holes."

We worked with the horses until the sun went down. Then Peter and I did what we love to do and took a nice, long bath together to get clean. Since my episode with the building crew, I'd come to depend on these times when we would be working together or just relaxing together more and more. Peter never looked at me funny because of what had happened or even asked what had caused me to lose it like that. I'd stopped all of the construction work and decided that if Jasper and his wife, Alice, wanted to visit; they'd have to be alright with staying in one of the spare bedrooms. I redecorated one of the rooms just for them and hoped that it would be enough to let them know that they were always welcome here. I really wanted to be able to give them a home of their own, but I wasn't willing to take the risk that what had happened would happen again. Peter said that he thought they'd be just as touched by the room, and I was sure that he'd already spoken with Jasper on the phone about everything.

We, meaning Peter, finished putting up the fence while I sat and watched him work the next day. It should have felt like a waste of time, but it didn't. I loved just looking at him watching him, just being around him made me feel complete. Finding deer to put inside Peter's brilliant idea was a little more difficult. The two of us spent hours scouring our land for them, and finding one always ended in a mad dash to get them to their pen before they had a heart attack and died from the shock of being caught. When there were about ten deer inside, Peter declared us done. I still thought it was a dumb idea, but Peter insisted and I couldn't deny him. We made the trip to the hardware store together to purchase food and a salt lick for the deer. Peter had read somewhere that hunters baited deer this way to ensure an easier hunt for them. I thought it seemed cruel, but I hunted in a similar fashion so I wasn't really in a position to judge anyone.

A week later, I was weeding the flower bed that hugged the front porch of our home when I heard a vehicle coming down the driveway. Peter must have heard it too because he stepped out of the house and onto the porch. My eyes met his and he shook his head at me slightly, letting me know that there was nothing to be concerned about. He didn't say anything, just stood there watching the driveway. It was a little odd, but, that was Peter and if I got overly concerned every time he did something odd I would have a long existence. I went back to weeding the flower bed and watching Peter from the corner of my eye. He half sat on the porch railing above where I was working and his face lit up in a smile as the vehicle came to a stop and the door opened.

"Bout time you came round," Peter said as he started off the porch and Jasper's familiar scent finally reached me.

"Yeah, well," Jasper replied.

I stood up and dusted myself off and walked over to where Peter was hugging his brother. It was good to see them together. I knew that Peter had missed Jasper's presence, and I was pretty sure that Jasper had missed Peter's as well. I approached the two of them with a smile.

"Is this a boys only thing," I asked, "or can I get in on it too?"

They separated and laughed a little. Jasper gave me a brief hug and stepped back from me. His presence didn't bother me nearly as much as it had when he'd traveled with us and been so much a part of our lives, but, I knew him a little better now that I had then. I still wasn't entirely at ease with him but he was a part of our family.

"It's good to see you," I told him.

"You too Char," he answered.

"Where's Alice," Peter asked, making Jasper look a little uncomfortable.

"Let's get him settled in first," I said firmly, pulling Jasper towards the house, "He'll talk when he's ready."

"Thank you Char," Jasper whispered and I just winked at him and patted his arm.

Peter showed Jasper to his room and left him there. I went back out to the flower bed to finish working, and Peter followed me to sit in a rocking chair and watch me. Like I took pleasure in watching him do manual labor with no shirt on, it seemed that he took pleasure in watching me do domestic tasks that made my boobs jiggle. I wouldn't deny him and he knew it, so he sat in his rocker and enjoyed the show that my weeding the flower bed gave him.

When I finished with the weeding and had cleaned up, I stepped back on the front porch to find Peter and Jasper staring at the horizon. It was tense, not an unusual thing when Jasper was a part of a conversation. I crossed the porch and curled one leg under me as I sat in the swing. I pushed myself gently and watched the two of them. I had the ominous feeling that there was something lurking just past the horizon that could possibly interrupt the way I thought about life. That there was this giant something that I'd missed that was happening right before my eyes, invisible, yet very tangible. It would be so easy to push all of this unease onto Jasper's presence, because it's what I've done since Peter brought me into this life. It wouldn't have been the right thing to do, because this seemed so much bigger than just his sudden reappearance in our lives.

"I'm going to hunt," Peter said and crossed the porch to kiss me.

"You'll be back soon," I asked him as I lay my hand on his cheek.

"A few days," he answered shaking his head, "I'm going to Dallas."

"Be careful," I automatically replied and he winked at me. "I love you."

"I love you too," he said and pressed another kiss to my lips.

He left the porch, and turned towards us from the center of the yard before raising his hand in a wave.

"You two behave," he laughed before taking off down the driveway on foot.

Jasper and I sat in a familiar, uncomfortable silence as the sun began its decent in the sky. When the sky was tinged with the oranges and reds of twilight, he finally turned to me and smiled a little.

"It absolutely reeks of you out here," he said.

"I sent Peter to pick out the plants," I replied.

"I should have known," he laughed back and then the silence surrounded us once more.

The moon rose before either of us spoke.

"You're still afraid of me," Jasper accused me.

"A little," I answered him honestly, "You did want to kill me once."

"It's not like that now," he sighed and seemed to relax into his chair finally.

"Why not," I asked, finally turning my head to look at Jasper.

"Because," was his answer.

"That's lame Jasper," I told him.

"I don't like to think about it," he said.

"I don't like to be so full of fear every time your name comes up," I told him.

"Fair enough," he nodded.

"But not fair enough to tell me why I should feel differently," I asked.

"It's not that," he sighed.

"Then what is it Jasper," I sighed right back at him, "because I don't like this."

"You think I do Charlotte," he asked.

"To a certain extent, yes," I replied.

"That's not true," he defended himself, but I was pretty sure that he was trying to convince himself that I'd not just hit the nail on the head.

"I'm the only one you still have like this," I accused him. "Peter loves you, and I can only tolerate you."

"He doesn't love me," he answered.

"He does," I said, "Why else would he have gone back for you?"

"Cause you told him to," He said with a smirk for me.

"That wasn't for you," I told him, then muttered, "jackass."

"He had you. He didn't need me," Jasper said, trying to make it seem like I had convinced Peter to go back for him because of some reason that related to him.

"You're his brother," I said, "Of course he needs you. What you did hurt him."

"It was our job," he defended himself.

"I realize that," I told him, "but he thought of you as his brother even then. He expected more out of you."

"You have no idea how much that cost me," he answered.

"It nearly cost you your brother," I said.

"I know," he replied and a wave of false sadness washed quickly through me before being replaced with a swelling tide of gratitude.

"Cut that shit out Jasper," I said, "Be a big boy and use your words. I convinced him to go back because I couldn't stand seeing him like he was. He was so hurt, and it was all your fault. I couldn't help him and he needed to heal."

"He would have been alright," he whispered.

"That looks like shit on you," I replied shortly.

"What," he asked.

"Self-loathing," I rolled my eyes, "You're a grown ass man. Own your actions for once."

"I did," he glared at me, "You have no idea the shit I went through for you two."

"I lived there too," I said wryly, "I have a pretty good idea. It was nothing less than you deserved."

"Fuck you Charlotte," he said quietly.

"No fuck YOU Jasper," I screamed back, "You could have come with him that day."

He just shook his head and sighed, looking at me like I was the most clueless person on the planet. He'd pissed me off. I thought he was being selfish, and I was pretty sure he thought that I was just being hateful. I wasn't though. I was genuinely interested in why he thought that I shouldn't hate him for the things that he'd put Peter and I through. I didn't understand his motives for being like he was, and I couldn't truly appreciate him as family, though he _was_ family. I was trying to calm myself, knowing that he could feel just how much hatred I had for him in this moment, and failing miserably in my attempt.

"You're nothing but a manipulative prick," I stood from the swing and went to scream in his face, "You broke him that day! He loved you and you broke him."

Jasper grabbed my arms and stood with his eyes narrowing at me. I could feel his rage as he lifted me from the porch so that my eyes were level with his. His fingers dug into my arms as he shook me just enough to rattle my teeth slightly. This was the Jasper that I was so much more comfortable with, the unpredictable angry man that I'd spent my first year avoiding. I thought it was so much more in character for him to behave this way with me. The passive niceness that he'd maintained for Peter's eyes never made me comfortable, it just made me trust him even less. Despite the things that he'd done to try to make me more comfortable, I still couldn't see him as anything other than the Devil that he'd always been to me. I remembered the teachings from my human life about the devil having many guises, and I had never been fooled by any of Jasper's. It was something that I prided myself on. I both loved and hated him.

"Sometimes I really hate you," I spat out at him.

"That's too damn bad Charlotte," he said to me and put me back down, "because you're my sister and you might piss me off royally, but I'll always love you."

"Liar," I accused him, "You tolerate me for Peter's sake."

"No," he sighed and sat down scrubbing his face with his hands. "I owe you everything and I don't like being in debt."

"Why do you say that," I sighed right back at him as I took the chair next to him. "You don't owe me anything."

He sat there rocking in the chair, staring at the night sky while I watched him and waited for what he would say next. I was expecting more of his passive niceness, his attempt to smooth over the fact that our conversation was anything but nice. In this moment I hated him more than I ever had before. He wouldn't even try to understand my anger with him. He had no idea how much I wanted to kill him every day when we were in Maria's camp. Not for anything that he ever did to me or the other newborns, but for the things that he demanded from Peter. I hated him for his cruelty on our last day in the camp, and how he wouldn't let Peter be the one to come get me. I hated him for the way he looked at me that day. I hated that I couldn't be enough for Peter, and that he needed Jasper in his life to feel complete. I loved him for being there for Peter. I loved him for letting us go, both away from the camp and that day in Chicago when Peter had found us this home. He'd dragged both of us into hell and kept us there, but he'd also let us go. It was always so complicated with me and Jasper. It would never be easy.

"You're making me dizzy," he barked at me, "Pick one fucking emotion please."

"Fuck you," I said to him again, "It's your fault anyway. You won't give me answers."

Again, the silence intruded on our angry exchange. Hours passed with me glaring at Jasper and him glaring at the sky. It was sick, and it was necessary. We both wallowed in the rage and the love that we had for each other trying to sort through the nastiness of it all. He hated me just as much as I hated him; I knew it even if he wouldn't acknowledge it. And he loved me just as fiercely as he hated me. We were a lot alike in that respect. It was so much easier for me to accept my hatred of him, to cling to it tightly. I needed to be able to hate him, but I needed to be able to love him too because he was my family.

"Why did you come here," I asked him finally, changing the subject to something that we could hopefully be more level headed about. "Why now?"

"I slipped," he said, "I needed room to think."

"How's that working out for you," I questioned, genuinely curious since he'd been in conversation with either me or Peter since he'd been here.

"Good," he sighed, "I talked to Peter earlier. It helped."

"And I'm making it worse," I stated.

"No," he said, and turned to me with a smile. "You've helped more."

"I don't even know what you're talking about," I told him.

"Exactly," he shrugged at me, "and you're not tiptoeing around me. You hold me accountable and make me think."

"You're a grown ass man," I told him, "I won't baby you."

"I know," he said, "it's part of why I love you so fiercely. You're scared of me, but you'll still light a fire under my ass if I need it."

"The worse you can do is kill me," I shrugged at him. "You won't though. It ended far too terribly the last time you couldn't bring yourself to do it."

"It was the best thing I ever did," he replied, "I wanted to kill you first right after he bit you. I knew, you know."

"I always thought he was a little too naïve about that," I told him, "but that's Peter. Why didn't you?"

"Because of him," he answered, "I'd hurt him too much already. He deserved to have you."

"And that's why you let us go," I asked.

"Partially," he nodded, "I figured you'd both be killed quickly. I hoped you wouldn't, I wanted y'all to be happy. I was a coward. I just couldn't do it myself."

"He was your brother," I tried to reassure him, "He never blamed you for anything."

I didn't know why I was trying to make Jasper feel better about the terrible things that he'd done. He was the devil and I wanted him to feel bad about his past, and our shared history. But he was my brother and I wanted so desperately to care for him and make him feel better about his decisions.

"He forgave me too easily," Jasper said.

"Not really," I laughed, "It took me a long time to convince him to go back and get you."

"Thank you," he said.

"I've already told you," I sighed, "I didn't do it for you. I did it for him, Jasper."

"You saved me," he whispered.

"No," I answered, "Peter did."

"He would have been stuck with me if it weren't for you," he pointed out to me with a raised eyebrow.

I just shook my head at him and turned my face away from his to stare at the now lightening sky. A full night had passed while Jasper and I sat here in some weird attempt at trying to find some understanding for each other. I was uncomfortable with what he'd just said. I had to give it the weight that it deserved because it was the truth. Peter hadn't been happy in Maria's camp, but he'd been comfortable and could have lived a very long time there without being truly unhappy. I was the reason he'd left. I was the reason he went back for Jasper.

"I would do anything for you Charlotte," Jasper finally said to me. "You saved my life and I love you for it…"

"I hear a but," I told him with a snort of disbelief.

"BUT," he said with a laugh, "you are an infuriating woman sometimes. You expect too much, hold too many grudges."

"I love you too Jasper," I told him with a roll of my eyes.

He was right about me. I was holding on to things that were in our past, and though the thought of those things still hurt, I knew that I should at least consider starting to cut Jasper some slack.

"You want to go for a ride," I asked him. "I have a horse that would really suit you."

"Yeah," he said and stood up, "Just let me change."

We both went inside to change, and then went out to the barn together. I got the horses saddled up while Jasper protested that he could still saddle his own horse. I ended up growling at him to get him to shut up. I liked saddling up the horses myself and he could just suck it up and let me. Peter did. He let me lead, and we rode in silence for a while. He was taking in the land that surrounded our home, and I knew that he was probably remembering his human life.

"What did you mean," I asked him as we crested a rise, "that you'd slipped?"

"You know how hard it's always been for me," he answered.

"Feeding" I stated.

"Yeah," he breathed out and we began moving the horses down the rise, "Alice found a coven that feeds from animals."

"Eww," I replied making a face.

"Yeah," he chuckled, "It tastes like shit, but there's no emotion there, no familiar ones anyway. It helps."

"Then why'd you slip if it's so great," I questioned.

"Because it tastes like shit," he answered and I just nodded.

We rode in silence for a while before I spoke up again.

"You love her," I asked.

"I think so," he answered me. "If I don't, I want to."

"You're doing this for her," I continued questioning him, "or for you?"

"I don't know yet," he admitted to me.

"You should think about that," I told him. "If you're not doing it for you, you'll always struggle, you know."

"I know," he sighed.

"It'll work out Jasper," I said to him and turned to smile at him, "In the end, it'll all work out like it should."

"I don't always hate you," I told him after a few minutes of silence.

"I know you don't," he said. "It shows."

I let the conversation drop there, and we moved on to discussing the property until he pointed in the direction of the place where I'd unsuccessfully tried to build him a house.

"Is that y'alls too," he asked me though I was pretty sure that he already knew the answer.

"Yes," I answered quickly.

"Can I see it," he wanted to know.

"I don't go there anymore," I said.

"Why not," he asked and let his curiosity and concern fill me until I shot him a dirty look and he pulled it away from me.

"Because," I sighed, "I know Peter told you what happened and I don't like to be reminded of it."

"Show me," he demanded.

"No," I nearly shouted at him.

I didn't want him pushing this. We were already on shaky enough ground and I was afraid that we'd lose what little progress we'd made in the past 24 hours.

"Show me," he asked me softly, "I can help you."

"Fine," I sighed and lead the horse in the direction he'd pointed.

My panic began at having to face the site, though I knew that Peter had dealt with the mess that I'd made of it. I hadn't been back, and I felt Jasper's false calm battling with my insecurities at approaching the place where I'd completely lost my mind. I stopped my horse before entering the clearing, and dropped the reigns. Jasper did the same with his horse and slowly approached my side.

"Peter didn't say much," Jasper said.

"I didn't tell him much," I replied, "I didn't remember much more than flashes and colors."

"Sounds…" he trailed off, "familiar."

We walked into the clearing, and though the soot from the fires that Peter had set here had mostly washed away, it was still very dramatic when you considered the serenity of the rest of our property. I stopped at the edge, and wrapped my arms around myself as I wondered what was running through Jasper's mind. I wondered if he was judging me. I knew that he'd lost it in a similar fashion, many more times than me, but he'd been at war at the time. I felt weak that something as simple as being taken advantage of by a human contractor combined with not liking the intrusion into my territory by someone that refused to respect me had driven me to that place where rage overwhelmed rationality. I should have been able to handle it all so much better than I had.

"It's a nice clearing," Jasper finally said. "I think I would have liked what you were trying to do."

I couldn't respond to him. He was trying, but I wasn't. I didn't like sharing this part of myself with him. This should have been reserved for Peter alone, but then Jasper walked over and wrapped his arms around my shoulders and filled me with a mixture of his false emotions that combined to form a calm acceptance.

"I'm sorry Char," he whispered, "Thank you for showing me. You don't know how much this means."

I pulled away from him and walked back to the horses. We started back towards the barn, having been out all day. Our ride was silent except for the sound of the horses. I was sad, yet strangely relieved that someone else had seen my deepest darkest secret and didn't seem to care. He wasn't asking me a million questions, or blaming me for any of it happening. The silence between us continued as we got the horses cleaned up from their long day and put the tack back to rights.

"I'm going to shower and change," I said to Jasper at the front door.

"Char," Jasper replied and laid his hand on my shoulder, "don't be hard on yourself about it. Sometimes, shit like that just happens."

"Thank you Jasper," I whispered and pat his hand.

I took my time with my shower knowing that after all of the time that we'd spent together that Jasper would appreciate a break from me just as much as I would him. We'd somehow gotten to a place where the hatred that we felt for each other had faded into a low simmering in the background. I was sure that it would always be there. I couldn't imagine anything that would be able to quench it. I re-read some of the home construction manuals that I'd gotten, and it was eye-opening that I could do it. I owed that ability to Jasper. I knew that Peter had accepted what had happened and just moved on, but I also knew just how important I'd always been to Peter. He would have never acted any other way. Jasper's reaction reassured me in a way that Peter's hadn't. Jasper wouldn't have ever been able to help me get past what had happened like Peter had done, but Peter couldn't have helped me with the acceptance of it like Jasper did. I was beginning to acknowledge the importance of each member of my family, and the realization made me smile. Jasper and I spent the night in our separate places and neither of us emerged until late the following morning.

I puttered around the house doing mundane things that needed to be done. Jasper offered to help, and I let him. He swept and mopped. I did laundry and watered the houseplants. He dusted the high spots that I couldn't reach, after laughing at me over it, and I made him clean his own bathroom. It didn't take us more than a few hours to clean the house from top to bottom, and I noticed the time as I put away the last of the laundry.

"It's late," I stated the obvious.

"Not really," Jasper replied.

"I'm worried," I said.

"About," he questioned me.

"Peter, of course," I replied, "He's been gone longer than he should have been."

"I'll go find him," Jasper offered.

"Give it till tonight," I suggested, "then we'll both go. He's never been gone this long before."

And so the two of us waited. We played cards, which was terrible because Jasper used his gift to cheat mercilessly. I made a vow to myself to never play a card game with him again. We played Scrabble, and midway through the game, we heard him approaching. I instantly stood and went to the front door. Peter walked through it with a smile on his face. He looked more travel worn than hunts usually made him, but I chalked it up to his having run to Dallas.

"I'm glad you're home," I said to Peter with a smile and went to wrap my arms around him.

"I missed you Darlin'," he said and stepped back, "I need to get cleaned up before I get you dirty. Jasper."

With a wink for me and a nod for Jasper, Peter went upstairs and we heard the water come on in the bathroom. I looked over at Jasper and shrugged. It was odd, but it was Peter and I have always known that life with him would have a certain amount of oddness to it. I loved him, because of who he was not in spite of it and so I let this little oddity go and didn't think of it again. He joined Jasper and I after his clean up and we enjoyed watching some television together.

The rest of Jasper's visit was pretty uneventful, other than his eyes fading from the beautiful red that was so similar to Peter's into that dull golden color that meant he only drank from animals. I thought he was much more handsome with the red, but having the golden eyes meant so much to him. I hoped that he'd thought more about what I'd said regarding his choices. If this was what he wanted, then I hoped that he would succeed. If he was just doing it to make Alice happy and to gain a feeling of acceptance from his adopted family, then I was ready to rip some self-righteous fuckers to pieces. It was a good goodbye. I had hope that the two of us had come to some sort of understanding. Peter and I stood on the porch until we couldn't see him anymore. I gave his waist a squeeze and turned to go back into the house while he followed me.

"Y'all had a good visit," he stated.

"We did," I answered him.

"I'm glad," he said and pulled me into his lap on the sofa. "Y'all are important to me."

"We both know that Sug," I said as I pressed a kiss to his lips. "You had a good hunt?"

"It was," he reflected for a moment then blinded me with a smile, "rewarding."

"Good," I answered and settled into him.

Things weren't any different after Jasper's visit. We were still us, though Peter began to hunt on his own more often than he had before. He'd ask if I wanted to join him, but it seemed like he needed this time to himself. He would always come back in very good spirits, and I got to reap the benefits of his successful hunts in the physical pleasure that he'd give me when he returned. I could hardly be offended that he hunted with me less often, or resent the time that we spent apart. His solo hunts seemed to be a good thing for him, and for the two of us. It was a change from how things had always been between us, but it wasn't necessarily bad. I thought that it may have something to do with how clingy I'd been since I'd lost my mind and massacred the neighbors. This was his way of getting me to hunt alone so that I would begin to trust myself again, I guessed. It was just another part of the oddness that was Peter.

The first time he stayed gone a week for a hunt, I began to grow concerned, but it only happened once that he was gone for so long. The happiness that he radiated after his return from that hunt lasted for several days, and so I decided that I'd just overreacted to something that was no big deal. He hunted with me several times after that week long hunt before going on another solo hunt. I wasn't worried, though his behavior was weird. Our hunts together brought a different sort of pleasure, and I enjoyed having him bring my meals to me just like he'd done in the early days. There was passion there, but that giddy happiness that he'd have after hunting alone never came from feeding with me. It was something that I noticed but didn't grow concerned about, I just watched. I knew if there was something bothering him he would come to me with it without hesitation, so I continued to support him in his solo hunts and our life continued to move forward.

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**E/N: Well, we're starting to get to the meat of the story now! Thank you to everyone that's reading! Special thanks to those of you that have favorited me and put this story on alerts, and to those of you that are reviewing! Feel free to check out my O/Ss while you wait for the next chapter...all the same characters, just different pieces of their lives. **


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